Regulators order grounding of some Boeings after midair emergency

Washington Post

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of 171 Boeing airplanes for inspection on Saturday, after part of a jet’s wall blew out in midair on a flight Friday and caused a dramatic emergency landing.

All Boeing 737-9 Max planes with the same part – a mid-cabin door plug, or an exit that’s paneled off rather than used as a door – operating in the United States must be inspected, the FAA ordered.

Alaska and United Airlines, which use the jets, had begun inspections, the carriers said. The incident caused dozens of flight cancellations Saturday, with the checks expected to continue into next week.

On the Friday Alaska Airlines flight, a door plug blew out partway down the plane, leaving a gaping hole beside a row of seats, according to the FAA, experts and images captured by passengers. Some on board described pieces of debris flying around and frigid air rushing in as the pilots made an emergency landing.

The flight, which was carrying 171 passengers and six crew members, landed safely in Portland, Oregon, at the airport from which it had taken off. One flight attendant sustained minor injuries, according to the union that represents Alaska crews.

“It was terrifying,” passenger Elizabeth Le, 20, a college student who was on a trip with friends, said in an interview.

Federal regulators announced plans to investigate the cause of the incident, which was not immediately clear. In the emergency order, the FAA said it was taking action because the “departure of a mid-cabin door plug” had caused rapid decompression on the plane.

The agency said the problem “could result in injury to passengers and crew, the door impacting the airplane, and/or loss of control of the airplane.”

“The FAA is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737-9 Max planes before they can return to flight,” FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker said.

Boeing said in a Saturday afternoon statement that it supported the FAA’s decision.

Alaska Airlines grounded its 65 Boeing 737-9 Max planes for inspections as a precaution immediately following the incident. According to FlightAware.com, Alaska had canceled just over 100, or 13%, of scheduled flights by midday Saturday.

By noon Pacific time Saturday, 18 jets that had recently undergone major maintenance, including “in-depth and thorough” inspections of the plug door, had been cleared to return to service, the airline said in an update. Some of those appeared to have been back in use by Saturday morning: 10 passenger flights on Boeing 737-9 Max jets were in the air as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, according to Alaska’s flight status tracker.

United Airlines also said it had temporarily suspended service on select Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft so that the FAA-ordered inspections could be completed. The move was expected to result in 60 flight cancellations on the carrier Saturday.

United has 79 Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft in its fleet, the most of any U.S. carrier. Of those, 33 have already received the necessary inspections, the airline said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday a team of experts landed in Portland to launch an investigation. Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on X he was briefed on the “terrifying incident.” The FAA will work with the NTSB on the investigation, he noted.

The incident is likely to put Boeing and its widely used 737s under fresh scrutiny. The aircraft was grounded after two 737 Max planes crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people, leading federal regulators to order Boeing to fix design flaws implicated in the crashes. The FAA eventually deemed the jets safe to fly again in 2020.

The incident is also a test for the FAA, which lawmakers have criticized for its handling of the 2018 and 2019 crashes and its process for reviewing the safety of the Max. The agency has attempted to strengthen its oversight of Boeing since those incidents.

The last year has brought a string of incidents that raised broader airline safety concerns. Multiple near-collisions on U.S. runways raised alarms and put safety under deeper scrutiny, including a safety review by the FAA. Rising passenger demand post-pandemic has collided with labor shortages, outdated technology and worker fatigue to pose safety risks, The Post has reported.

On Tuesday, a Japan Airlines passenger jet burst into flames on a Tokyo airport runway after colliding with a coast guard plane, killing five people.

Investigators at the FAA and NTSB were likely to move “very swiftly” to diagnose the “unusual failure” on the Portland flight, said Graham Braithwaite, professor of safety and accident investigation at Britain’s Cranfield University.

“I would say that operators, the regulator and manufacturer will all be taking this event extremely seriously,” he said.

Alaska Airlines has 231 Boeing 737 planes in total, which are an average of 9.7 years old.

Outside of the United States, the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority said the impact of the FAA’s directive will be minimal because no Boeing 737-9 Max planes are registered in that country. However, the agency is asking foreign permit carriers to complete aircraft inspections before operating in U.K. airspace.

FlyDubai, which has three Boeing 737-9 Max jets in its fleet, said the planes have different configurations in which the mid-cabin exits are used. The planes completed in-depth inspections within the last 24 months, the carrier said, adding that it would follow any guidance issued by Boeing. Aeromexico, the Mexican flag carrier, said it was grounding its Boeing 737-9 Max jets in accordance with the FAA directive. It operates 19 of the planes, according to data from Cirium.

‘Scary as hell’

The flight was headed to Ontario, California, a Los Angeles-area airport. It took off from Portland around 5:06 p.m. Pacific time and reached 16,300 feet before descending, according to flight data published by the flight-tracking website Flightradar24.

Air traffic control recordings captured the frantic moments in which one of the plane’s pilots declared an emergency and requested an urgent return to Portland.

“We just depressurized; we’re declaring an emergency,” the Alaska pilot told air traffic controllers, according to recordings from LiveATC.net. “We need to descend down to 10,000.”

“There was a really loud bang … and then a whoosh noise and all the air masks dropped,” passenger Evan Smith told Fox12 Oregon after getting off the flight. “It was about as wide as a refrigerator” he added, describing the size of the hole.

Le also recalled an “extremely loud pop” as oxygen masks were deployed. Remnants of the wall were “flying everywhere,” and the wind was “extremely loud and cold,” she said.

“Everyone was shaken up but we all remained calm and buckled in our seats,” Le, a psychology student, added.

Fellow passenger Kyle Rinker tweeted: “I was right across from it, it was scary as hell,” noting that the seat beside the hole had been empty. “It was so cold with all that air coming in.”

The Association of Flight Attendants, which represents crews at Alaska, said members on board had “described the decompression as explosive.”

The Air Line Pilots Association council representing Alaska crews said it was happy everyone on board the plane was safe. “We commend the flight crew for their professionalism and skill in handling the decompression event,” the union said in a statement.

The pilot on Friday’s flight requested assistance on the ground and in subsequent broadcasts calmly repeated back instructions as the plane made its way to the airport. It landed about 20 minutes after taking off, according to Flightradar24.

The plane made a safe emergency landing, said Allison Ferre, a spokeswoman for the Port of Portland, which oversees Portland International Airport. The FAA confirmed that the crew of Flight 1282 had “reported a pressurization issue.”

‘A clean break’

The part of the plane that came off appeared to be a rear cabin exit door behind the wings, the location of which corresponded with the missing section visible in passengers’ photos and videos, according to experts who analyzed images and Flightradar24.

“It was a clean break that perfectly matched the outline of the mid-aft exit door,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a former accident investigator with the FAA and NTSB.

That particular door is required when a plane is carrying a certain number of passengers, but because the Alaska aircraft was designed to carry a smaller number of passengers, the door was not required to be activated. It would have been paneled over to look like a regular passenger seat with a window, Guzzetti said.

The aircraft that made the emergency landing Friday was delivered from Boeing on Oct. 31 last year. It entered service in the following month and has made 145 flights since then, according to Flightradar24.

Whether the incident signifies a larger issue – and trouble for Boeing and its 737 Max planes – remains to be seen, experts said.

It could be an isolated incident, said John Rose, chief risk and security officer at Altour, a travel management company, who said this type of problem is “extremely rare.” But if it’s a systemic manufacturing issue, then the incident could have “just exposed a failure.”

In Guzzetti’s assessment, that could be the case. Guzzetti said the incident could have been caused by a structural or mechanical issue, meaning it may be a manufacturing defect rather than a maintenance problem.

“Boeing has been plagued with a spate of manufacturing problems. Not just with the Max, but with the 787 as well,” he told the Post. “It certainly could point to some significant deficiencies in Boeing’s production process and production quality.”

Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), ranking minority-party member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he would continue to monitor the situation and be ready to work with lawmakers on any policy changes needed in the wake of the incident.

“Safety must come first for our aviation system, which is why I’m pleased that NTSB has already announced an investigation into the incident in Portland,” Larsen said. “I also support the FAA’s decision to issue an airworthiness directive grounding this subset of planes until they can be inspected for safety.”

Rep. Norma J. Torres (D-Calif.), who represents the district that includes Ontario International Airport, sent a letter to Whitaker requesting additional information about what steps the agency would take to address safety concerns about the aircraft and how long the temporary grounding would last.

Le, the passenger, said she was put on the next Alaska Airlines flight to Ontario on Friday night and had received a refund and “additional” compensation.

Even so, she remained wary of boarding another plane. “Not sure how we got through it,” she said, “but we did end up at our destination safely.”