Oregaon: Alaska Airlines grounded all of its Boeing 737-9 aircraft, hours after a scary midair incident where a window and part of the fuselage on one such plane blew out, leading to an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, on Friday evening.
“Following tonight’s event on Flight 1282, we have decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft,” Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement.
Social media video showed that one of the passenger window panels of the Ontario-bound flight had been blown out.
Passengers on board the plane told KPTV that they heard a loud bang and saw a hole in the wall of the plane. The incident took place shortly after the takeoff at an altitude of 16,000 feet. A child sitting near the window was reportedly pulled by the suction, and his shirt was torn off. Some passengers also lost their phones, which were sucked out of the plane.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the crew reported a “pressurization issue.” A 22-year-old passenger told the New York Times, “I open up my eyes and the first thing I see is the oxygen mask right in front of me. 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’”.
The airline later informed the plane had landed safely with 174 passengers and six crew members. The plane was diverted about about six minutes after taking off at 5.07 pm, according to flight tracking data from the FlightAware website, and landed at 5.26 pm.
It added, “While this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation”.
Notably, the 737 MAX was grounded for 20 months worldwide after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia. The US-based airline giant is awaiting certification of its smaller 737 MAX 7 and larger MAX 10, Reuters reported.
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