© Reuters. An Alaska Airlines plane lands at Benito Juarez airport in Mexico City, Mexico, December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/File Photo
(Corrects aircraft recently accepted by China to Boeing (NYSE:) 787 from 737 MAX, paragraph 28)
By David Shepardson, Valerie Insinna and Tim Hepher
(Reuters) -Alaska Airlines is grounding dozens of Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes for safety checks after an explosion in a cabin panel forced a new plane loaded with passengers to make an emergency landing.
The piece of fuselage tore off the left side of the plane as it left Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, on Friday, forcing the pilots to turn around and land safely with 171 passengers and six crew on board. .
It is the latest mishap involving Boeing's best-selling model, which was grounded for nearly two years following crashes in 2018 and 2019, and comes as Boeing and a major supplier are grappling with a succession of production or quality issues.
There were no immediate indications of the cause of the apparent structural failure and no reports of injuries.
The airline's CEO, Ben Minicucci, said in a statement that its fleet of 65 similar aircraft would return to service only after preventive maintenance and safety inspections, which it hoped to complete in the “coming days.”
US aviation authorities announced an investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday that a team of structural, operations and systems experts would arrive at the scene later that day.
Boeing also said it was investigating the incident.
“We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer,” Boeing said.
Flight 1282 had reached just over 16,000 feet when the explosion occurred, according to FlightRadar24.
“We would like to get off,” 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,” the pilot added, referring to the initial altitude for this type of emergency, below which it is considered possible to breathe for healthy people without additional oxygen.
Posts on social media showed oxygen masks deployed and a portion of the plane's side wall was missing.
Photographs from passengers appeared to show that a section of the fuselage sometimes used for an optional rear exit door in the middle of the cabin had been torn off, leaving a door-shaped gap.
The additional door is usually installed by low-cost airlines that use additional seats that require more paths for evacuation.
However, those doors are permanently “plugged” or disabled on Alaska Airlines planes.
The new MAX 9 was delivered to Alaska Airlines in late October and certified in early November, according to FAA data.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he had been informed about the incident.
“Grateful to the flight crew who kept passengers safe during this terrifying incident. The FAA is supporting the NTSB investigation and will take all appropriate actions moving forward,” he wrote in a statement on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.
PRODUCTION PROBLEMS
“Any time you have a rapid decompression like this, it's a significant safety event,” said Anthony Brickhouse, an aviation safety expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
“I can't imagine what these passengers experienced. It would have been loud. The wind would be blowing through that cabin. It was probably a pretty violent situation, and definitely a scary situation.”
The incident shows the importance of passengers keeping their seat belts fastened while seated on a plane, even if the seat belt light is off, Brickhouse said, noting that the oxygen mask system appeared to have worked correctly.
Reports said the seat next to the left panel, which contains a normal passenger window, was unoccupied.
“This is a very, very serious situation and it could have been much worse,” he said. “If someone had been sitting in that seat and had not been buckled up, the situation would have been different.”
The 737 MAX was grounded for 20 months worldwide after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 linked to poorly designed cabin software that killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia. Boeing is awaiting certification of its smaller 737 MAX 7 and larger MAX 10.
China's aviation regulator is holding an emergency meeting to consider a response to the incident, including a possible new grounding of the Boeing MAX fleet in the country, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.
China was the first country to ground the MAX in 2019 and recently began accepting new deliveries of larger Boeing 787s following a broader trade dispute between China and the United States, although domestic services using the MAX resumed in January. from last year.
Last week, Boeing said it was urging airlines to inspect all 737 MAX planes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder control system.
The FAA said it was closely monitoring inspections of the Boeing 737 MAX and would consider additional action if more loose or missing hardware was found.
The fuselage of Boeing 737 aircraft, its most popular model, is manufactured by Kansas-based Spirit AeroSystems (NYSE:), which was spun off from Boeing in 2005.
In August, Boeing identified a quality issue related to the Spirit that resulted in improperly drilled holes in the aft pressure bulkhead.
It was not immediately clear whether the door “plug” used to replace the door when not selected by airlines is also made by the Wichita, Kansas-based supplier, nor whether the Alaska incident was related to the processes or design of the fabric.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how that part of the plane is assembled. Spirit AeroSystems referred questions to Boeing.
