On January 5th, an Alaska Airlines flight was bound for a landing in Southern California until a door plug flew off the fuselage, forcing an emergency return to Portland, Oregon. The door fell off just minutes after the flight took off at 16,000 feet in the air. The plane shook, the oxygen masks dropped, and a white vapor saturated the plane. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recommended visual inspections of the Boeing 737-900ER following this near-death experience on an Alaska Airlines flight.
The flight contained 171 passengers including three babies and four unaccompanied minors. When the door fell off, all passengers were asked to put their masks on because the loss of the plug caused the plane to depressurize. A gaping hole sucked up belongings, and children had to be held down.
Josiah McCaul, the 12-year-old son of Sieysoar Un, starred on “Good Morning America ” and talked about his personal experience sitting in the row right behind the door plug. “You just hear a big boom,” said McCaul. “It was silent for like one second, and then you would just feel and hear a lot of air blowing around, freezing cold air.” The opening sucked up McCaul’s cell phone and stuffed animal.
The Max 9 involved in the incident had been restricted from long flights over water after Alaska reported pressurization alerts on prior flights. The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded every Boeing 737 Max 9 with a plug door until it is ensured that “each can safely return to operation.” The CEO of Boeing, Dave Calhoun referred to what happened as a “mistake.”
Although the flight landed back to Portland with no serious injuries reported, the belongings lost, and emotional trauma from this experience prompted four passengers to file a class-action lawsuit against the airline and Boeing, the manufacturer of the plane.
Ben Minicucci, the CEO of Alaska Airlines, expressed anger with Boeing and demanded immediate improvements to its quality programs. In an interview with NBC News, Minicucci said after several inspections of the Boeing 737 Max 9 planes they found “some loose bolts on many” of the aircrafts. NBC News asked if Boeing’s quality issue extends beyond this one incident. He said, “I think this is the issue that’s a question right here, which is what is Boeing going to do differently on their quality program, to make sure that when we get an airplane, it’s at the highest degree of excellence, and that’s what’s got to be different going forward.”