Dramatic footage has shown the moments after a window and a piece of fuselage exploded from a passenger plane in midair, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the Boeing 737-9 MAX.
An Alaska Airlines passenger on the damaged flight said a boy and his mother were sitting in the same row that was damaged, and the boy's shirt was torn. It was torn apart and sucked out of the plane.
While only minor injuries were reported, the situation could have been “very serious,” according to David Learmont, a consulting editor at Flightglobal. He told Sky News: “If there had been people near her who were not wearing seatbelts, they would have disappeared.”
Alaska Airlines grounded all of its Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft in response to the incident, which caused a drop in cabin pressure and led to the plane making an emergency landing in the US state of Oregon.
The FAA later said it would order the temporary grounding of some Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft operated by some US airlines or on US soil.
Boeing said it “fully supports” the administration's decision to request inspections of the 737-9 MAX aircraft
“Same configuration” as the plane that was forced to land.
This is the latest release for Boeingthe largest airline in the world, after its 737 MAX aircraft were grounded for a year and a half after two crashes in 2018 and 2019.
A large hole can be seen in the side of the plane. Photo: Kyle Rinker
Can the Boeing 737 MAX be grounded again?
Aviation experts said the accident involving an Alaska Airlines 737-9 MAX was “extremely unlikely” to ground all planes of the same type.
Tim Atkinson, a pilot and aviation consultant, told Sky News: “The problem is not that the planes are grounded, the problem is that they are grounded.” “Once you get an airplane off the ground, how you get it off the ground is the really hard part. That's why groundings are so rare, and it's almost always for something more important than this.”
He added: “Aviation safety works through statistics, which is what I call rolling the dice in the sky. So far no one has been killed. Remember that the Max II crash happened before the planes were grounded.” [in 2019]”.
Exterior photos indicate that the rear exit door in the middle of the cabin broke during the flight. Photo: KGW
The MAX, the latest version of the Boeing 737, is a twin-engine, single-aisle aircraft that entered service in May 2017.
Lermont said airlines that operate planes are likely to react by conducting inspections of their fleets.
“Max is being caned. Just when you thought everything was fine,” he said. “If I were in charge of an airline with any MAX aircraft, I would inspect the area where this happened.”
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that they will investigate the accident, while the British Civil Aviation Authority is monitoring the situation.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced the temporary grounding of some 737-9 MAX aircraft on Saturday afternoon.
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The airline and Boeing will investigate the issue
Lermont said that Alaska Airlines and Boeing are looking to find out “what exactly the problem is,” adding: “Is this a design error, a manufacturing error, or did the plane suffer damage that later revealed itself?”
He said he doubted the incident would affect passenger confidence in Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft, but added: “There may be some nervous passengers who will be reluctant to fly the MAX.”
The Alaska Airlines flight problem is unlikely to be catastrophic for an entire plane, but it could be fatal, Atkinson said.
“This is the thing that could cause one or two deaths in the worst case as a result of people being sucked off the plane. It will never be worse than that,” he said.
He added that Alaska Airlines' board of directors may be “kicking itself along the way” over the grounding of its fleet.
“I think it's largely a matter of a simple technical issue on a plane and a massive overreaction,” he said.
After the Alaska Airlines incident, a Boeing spokesperson said: “We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customers.”
“A technical team from Boeing stands ready to support the investigation.”
The Boeing 737 Max aircraft had been stored during previous flights
Why were the Boeing 737 MAX grounded in 2019?
All of Boeing's MAX passenger planes were grounded in March 2019 for 20 months after two crashes in 2019. Ethiopia And Indonesia Which killed 346 people, including them.
Both disasters were caused by an automated flight control system that pushed the plane's nose down based on faulty sensor readings, with the pilots unable to regain control.
The wreck of an Ethiopian Airlines plane in 2019. Pic: AP
After its planes were grounded, Boeing worked on software upgrades and new safety precautions for the flight control system associated with both crashes and the planes returned to service in December 2020.
The company also implemented flight control updates, maintenance work, trained new pilots and held meetings with flight crews to explain changes and address concerns.
Lermont said Boeing “made a huge effort” to fix the problems with the 737 MAX.
The company is “back to square one,” he said, adding: “MAX has made them start completely over from the ground up with their whole philosophy of what it means to be a world-class aircraft designer and manufacturer.”
Lion Air plane wreck in Indonesia in 2018. Pic: AP
What other problems did the Boeing 737 MAX face?
Boeing was forced to work to fix other manufacturing defects in its 737 MAX aircraft, which led to the suspension of aircraft deliveries.
Last year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) asked pilots flying the Max 8 and Max 9 jets to limit the use of the anti-icing system in dry conditions due to concerns that the inlets around the engine could overheat and separate, which could slam into the plane and cause rapid decompression.
An engine fan blade broke off on an old 737 plane during a Southwest Airlines flight in 2018, hitting and shattering a window, and killing a woman.
Last month, Boeing asked airlines to inspect planes for a possible loose screw in the rudder control system.
