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©Reuters. An Alaska Airlines aircraft is photographed landing at Benito Juarez Airport in Mexico City, Mexico on December 7, 2017.Reuters/Carlos Jasso/File photo
Written by David Shepherdson and Valerie Incinna
(Reuters) – Alaska Airlines grounded dozens of Boeing (NYSE:) 737 MAX 9 jets for safety inspections after a brand new plane carrying passengers was forced to make an emergency landing after an exploding cabin panel .
Ben Minicucci, the airline’s chief executive officer, said in a statement that 65 similar jets will undergo preventive maintenance and safety inspections before returning to service, which he expects to be completed within „the next few days.“ He said there was.
Flight 1282 was bound for Ontario, California, and reached an altitude of 16,000 feet before returning to Portland, Oregon, picking up 171 passengers and six crew members at 5:26 p.m. Friday, according to the airline and Flightradar 24. and landed safely.
„I want to descend,“ the pilot told air traffic control, according to a recording posted on liveatc.net.
„We are declaring an emergency. We need to get down to 10,000 degrees,“ the pilot added, referring to the initial altitude in preparation for such an emergency, below which there is no extra oxygen. He said it is considered possible for a healthy person to breathe.
Social media posts also showed oxygen masks deployed and part of the plane’s sidewall missing.
Passenger photos showed a panel that could have been used for the optional rear cabin center exit door had been torn away, leaving a door-like gap.
Additional doors are typically installed by low-cost airlines that use additional seats that require more aisles for evacuation.
However, on Alaska Airlines jets, these doors are permanently „closed“ or disabled.
„While this type of incident is rare, our flight crews were trained and prepared to safely manage the situation,“ Alaska Airlines said in a statement.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating the decompression incident. The Federal Aviation Administration also said the crew had reported pressurization issues and would investigate them.
The new MAX 9 was delivered to Alaska Airlines in late October and certified in early November, according to FAA data.
Boeing said it was considering an emergency landing.
„We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,“ the company said in a statement. “We are working to gather further information and are in contact with our airline customers.”
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„Any time a rapid decompression like this occurs, it’s a significant safety event,“ said Anthony Brickhouse, an aviation safety expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
„I can’t imagine what those passengers went through. The noise would have been loud. The wind would have been blowing through that cabin. It was probably a pretty violent situation, definitely a scary one.“
Brickhouse said this incident shows the importance of passengers continuing to keep their seatbelts fastened while seated on the plane, even if the seatbelt lights are off, and that the oxygen mask system is in place. He noted that it seemed to be working.
According to reports, the seat next to the left panel, where the passenger window is located, was empty.
„This is a very serious situation and it could have been much worse.“ „If someone had been sitting in that seat and not wearing a seatbelt, things would have been different.“
Boeing announced last week that it is asking airlines to inspect all 737 MAX planes for possible loose bolts in the rudder control system.
The FAA said it is closely monitoring inspections of the Boeing 737 MAX and will consider additional action if more loose or missing hardware is found.
737 MAX grounded worldwide for 20 months after two fatal crashes related to poorly designed cockpit software in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia It became. Boeing is awaiting certification for its smaller 737 MAX 7 and larger MAX 10.
China’s aviation regulator is holding an emergency meeting to consider responses to the incident, including the possibility of grounding Boeing Max planes in the country, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.
The FAA has been carefully scrutinizing the MAX for years and said in 2021 it was tracking all 737 MAX aircraft using satellite data.
The fuselage of the Boeing 737 aircraft, the company’s most popular model, is manufactured by Kansas-based Spirit Aerosystems (NYSE:). In August, Boeing identified a quality issue involving an improperly drilled hole in the Spirit’s aft pressure bulkhead.
Mr. Spirit could not be reached for comment on the Alaska incident.