Alaska Airlines refuses to inspect Boeing 737 MAX 9 after explosion By Reuters

© Reuters. An Alaska Airlines aircraft is seen landing at Benito Juarez Airport in Mexico City, Mexico, on December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/File Photo

(Recent aircraft modifications approved by China from Boeing (NYSE:) 737 MAX to 787, paragraph 28)

Author: David Shepherdson, Valerie Incina, Tim Heffer

(Reuters) – Alaska Airlines has grounded dozens of its Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets for safety inspections after a cabin panel on a new plane carrying passengers ruptured, forcing it to make an emergency landing.

A piece of the left fuselage tore off the left side of the jet as it left Portland, Oregon, for Ontario, California last Friday, forcing the pilots with 171 passengers and six crew members on board to turn around and land safely.

This is the latest accident involving Boeing’s best-selling model, which has been out of service for nearly two years following crashes in 2018 and 2019, and comes as the company and its major suppliers struggle with continuous production or quality issues.

There was no immediate indication of what caused the apparent structural failure and there were no reports of injuries.

The airline’s CEO, Ben Minicucci, said in a statement that the company’s 65 similar aircraft will undergo proactive maintenance and safety inspections before returning to service, which he expects to be completed in the “coming days.” Yes.

U.S. aviation authorities announced an investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday that a team of rescue, operations and systems experts would arrive on scene later that day.

Boeing also said it was investigating the incident.

Boeing said it was “working to gather more information and is in contact with our airline customers.”

According to FlightRadar24, Flight 1282 was just over 16,000 feet altitude when the explosion occurred.

“We want to come down,” the pilot told air traffic control, according to a recording posted on liveatc.net.

“We’re declaring an emergency. We need to get down to 10,000 degrees,” the pilot added. The initial preparedness altitude for these emergencies is below what a healthy person is considered to be able to breathe without supplemental oxygen.

Social media posts showed oxygen masks deployed and part of the aircraft’s sidewall missing.

Passenger photos showed that a section of the fuselage sometimes used for the optional rear mid-cabin exit door had been torn, creating a door-shaped gap.

Additional doors are usually installed by low-cost airlines that use extra seats that require more routes for evacuation.

However, on Alaska Airlines jets, these doors are permanently “wired” or disabled.

The new MAX 9 was delivered to Alaska Airlines in late October and certified in early November, according to FAA data.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he had been briefed on the incident.

“We thank the flight attendants for keeping our passengers safe during this horrific incident. The FAA is supporting the NTSB’s investigation and will take all appropriate actions moving forward,” he wrote in a statement posted on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.

production disruption

“Anytime you have rapid decompression like this, it’s a major safety incident,” said Anthony Brickhouse, an aviation safety expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

“I can’t imagine what these passengers were going through. The noise must have been loud. The wind must have been blowing hard in that cabin. It must have been a pretty violent situation and definitely a scary situation.”

“This incident highlights the importance of passengers wearing seat belts while on an airplane,” Brickhouse said. “The oxygen mask system appears to have functioned properly even when the fasten seat belt light was off.”

The seat next to the left panel, where the regular passenger window is located, was empty, according to the report.

“This is a very, very serious situation and it could have been much worse,” he said. “If someone had been sitting there and not buckled up, things would have been different.”

The 737 MAX has been grounded globally for 20 months after poorly designed cockpit software led to two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia. Boeing is awaiting certification of the smaller 737 MAX 7 and larger MAX 10.

China’s aviation regulator is holding an emergency meeting to review its response to the incident, including the possibility of a new grounding of Boeing MAX aircraft in the country, Bloomberg News reported Saturday.

China was the first country to land the MAX in 2019, and domestic services using the MAX resumed in January last year, but it has only recently begun taking new deliveries of the larger Boeing 787 following the wider Sino-US trade dispute.

Last week, Boeing said it was urging airlines to inspect all 737 MAX aircraft for loose rudder control system bolts.

The FAA said it is closely monitoring Boeing 737 MAX inspections and will consider additional action if more loose or missing hardware is discovered.

The fuselage of the most popular model, the Boeing 737 aircraft, is built by Kansas-based Spirit AeroSystems (NYSE:), a spin-off of Boeing in 2005.

Last August, Boeing identified a quality issue involving the Spirit, which resulted in improperly drilled holes in the rear pressure bulkhead.

It was not immediately clear whether the door “plugs” used to replace doors when airlines do not select them were made by a Wichita, Kansas-based supplier, or whether the Alaska incident was related to factory processes or design.

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how that part of the jet is assembled. Spirit AeroSystems referred questions to Boeing.