Alaska Airlines grounded its fleet of Boeing 737 Max 9s on Friday after a flight operated by the airline made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport in Oregon that evening due to an in-flight pressure problem which, according to passengers, caused a piece of the fuselage to explode.
The airline said Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 made a safe emergency landing carrying 171 passengers and six crew members at Portland Airport shortly after takeoff for Ontario, California. Within hours, the company declared that it was grounding all 65 of its Boeing 737 Max aircraft. 9 planes until he could inspect each plane. These planes represent about a fifth of its fleet. It said in a statement that it expected to complete the inspections within a few days.
Boeing’s Max planes have a storied history. After two Max 8 plane crashes killed hundreds of people over several months in 2018 and 2019, the Max was grounded worldwide.
Passengers on Friday’s flight described a disconcerting experience during the roughly 15 minutes the plane returned to the airport. As yellow oxygen masks dangled above their heads, a powerful wind tore a gaping hole that showed the night sky and city lights below.
The crew reported a “pressurization problem” before the emergency landing, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants Association said the decompression was “explosive” and that one flight attendant was slightly injured.
One passenger, Vi Nguyen of Portland, said she woke up to a loud noise during the flight. Then she saw a large hole in the side of the plane.
“I open my eyes and the first thing I see is the oxygen mask right in front of me,” Ms. Nguyen, 22, said. “And I look to the left and the wall on the side of the plane is gone.”
“The first thing I thought was, ‘I’m going to die,’” she added.
Her friend Elizabeth Le, 20, said she also heard “an extremely loud pop”. When she looked up, she saw a large hole in the wall of the plane, about two or three rows away, she said.
Ms Le said no one was sitting in the window seat next to the missing fuselage, but a teenager and his mother were sitting in the middle and aisle seats. Flight attendants helped them to the other side of the plane a few minutes later, she said. The boy appeared to have lost his shirt and his skin was red and irritated, she added.
“Honestly, it was horrible,” she said. “I almost collapsed, but I realized I had to stay calm.”
There were announcements over the speaker system, but none were audible because the wind blowing through the plane was so strong, she said. After the plane landed, paramedics came on board to ask if anyone had been injured, she added. A man sitting in the row immediately behind the hole said he had injured his foot.
Ms Le said passengers were not given an explanation of what happened. In a video she took of the flight, passengers can be heard clapping after landing. “Oh my God,” someone said.
After landing, Ms. Le said she and her friends were boarding another flight to Ontario later that night.
Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 took off for Ontario International Airport at 5:07 p.m. and was diverted to Portland six minutes later, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website. It reached a maximum altitude of approximately 16,000 feet, when its speed was recorded at over 440 miles per hour, and landed in Portland at 5:27 p.m.
The cause of the in-flight problem was unclear Saturday morning. Keith Tonkin, managing director of Aviation Projects, an aviation consultancy based in Brisbane, Australia, said an excessive difference in air pressure inside and outside the cabin could have caused the rupture from the wall.
The passengers were likely able to breathe normally even when the plane was at its highest altitude, Tonkin added.
The plane was new, having been certified in November, according to the FAA aircraft registry. It entered commercial service that month and has since logged 145 flights, according to Flightradar24, another flight tracking site.
Representatives from Alaska Airlines, the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board said they were investigating what happened.
Boeing said in a statement that it was “aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” adding: “We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer.”
As of midday Saturday, Alaska Airlines had canceled about 100 flights, or 13% of those scheduled for the day, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking site. Dozens of other flights were delayed. The airline said in a statement Saturday that it had already inspected more than a quarter of its 737 Max 9 planes, with “no concerning findings.”
In 2018, Lion Air Flight 610, a 737 Max 8, crashed into the ocean off the coast of Indonesia, killing all 189 passengers and crew. Less than five months later, in 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed shortly after leaving the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board.
The Max planes were grounded after the second crash. Boeing made changes to the plane, including the flight control system that caused the crashes, and the FAA cleared it to fly again in late 2020. In 2021, the company agreed to a $2 settlement $.5 billion with the Justice Department, resolving a criminal charge that Boeing conspired to defraud the agency.
In December, Boeing urged airlines to inspect all 737 Max planes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder control system after an international airline discovered a bolt with a nut missing when routine maintenance. Alaska Airlines said at the time that it expected to complete inspections of its fleet in the first half of January.
Max planes are widely used. Of the nearly 2.9 million flights scheduled worldwide in January, 4.3% are expected to be flown using Max 8 aircraft, while 0.7% are expected to use the Max 9.
The Max is the most popular plane in Boeing’s history, accounting for a fifth of all orders placed since 1955, according to company data.
Marc Walker And Niraj Chokshi reports contributed.