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Alaska to inspect its 110-plane fleet

In this Dec. 26 photo taken by airline passenger Jeremy Hermanns, Alaska Airlines flight 536 flight attendants talk to passengers after the plane lost pressure. The MD-80 lost cabin pressure at 26,000 feet because of a foot-long gash in its fuselage. (FILE Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press The Spokesman-Review
In this Dec. 26 photo taken by airline passenger Jeremy Hermanns, Alaska Airlines flight 536 flight attendants talk to passengers after the plane lost pressure. The MD-80 lost cabin pressure at 26,000 feet because of a foot-long gash in its fuselage. (FILE Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

SEATTLE – Alaska Airlines plans to inspect all 110 of its airplanes’ pressurization systems, following a spate of problems with various aircraft over the past couple of months.

The airline has had 11 flights with possible pressurization problems since Jan. 1. Those instances follow an accident Dec. 26 in which a plane lost cabin pressure in flight because of a hole in the plane caused by a ramp worker striking the aircraft with a baggage-handling vehicle while it was at the gate.

“The possible pressurization issues that we’ve had recently do represent an above-average number for this time period, based on historical averages,” Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Amanda Tobin said Friday.

No one has been seriously injured in the in-flight scares, although some have resulted in customers reporting sinus pain or other discomfort.

So far, Tobin said the company has not found a common cause for the problems. In one instance, the pressurization system malfunctioned because of an electrical problem, and in another a door was not closed properly. In another, oxygen masks deployed but the company is not yet sure why.

Tobin said the company will inspect all the planes’ systems and look at maintenance records going back 60 days to try to detect a common problem. She said there were no plans to evaluate the maintenance and engineering organization that conducts regular safety checks of the airplanes.

The airline, a subsidiary of Seattle-based Alaska Air Group Inc., has a fleet that includes 84 Boeing Co. 737s and 26 MD-80s. Tobin said the company has discussed the problems with Chicago-based Boeing.