The Alaska Airlines plane that lost a door mid-flight and forced an emergency landing had been banned from long-haul flights over water after a cabin pressure warning light illuminated on three previous flights.
Pilots reportedly noticed warning lights flashing to indicate a loss of cabin pressure. However, Alaska Airlines said it was reported and resolved “under approved maintenance procedures,” according to the Seattle Times.
These attributions resulted in the aircraft being banned from long flights over water, although it was still allowed to fly. That was the case on Friday evening when the Boeing 737 Max 9 took off from Portland, Oregon for California.
Shortly after takeoff, a portion of Flight 1282's door plug exploded at 16,000 feet and fell to Earth. The plane was forced to make a harrowing emergency landing as passengers believed they were saying a final goodbye to their loved ones.
Federal officials searched for days for the plane's lost parts to help with their investigation. During the investigation, authorities also ordered similar aircraft to be grounded.
The missing door stop was found by a Portland school teacher in his backyard on Sunday, days after the incident. It was found around the same time that Alaska Airlines announced it had canceled 170 flights on Sunday and another 60 flights on Monday so investigators could inspect the plane.
Alaska Flight 1282 took off from Portland shortly after 5 p.m. on Friday when a window shattered at 16,000 feet and federal investigators are now trying to find the missing part
The flight, which was scheduled to arrive at Ontario International in California, turned around after the connector door came loose on Friday evening
Jennifer Homendy with the National Transportation Safety Board said the plug door is located around Barnes Road near I-217 in Cedar Hills, Oregon
Federal investigators also said that data from the onboard voice recorder was lost because it was not reset within two hours of the emergency landing.
Cockpit voice recorders are found in all aircraft and are used to record the voices of the flight crew and any sounds in the cockpit.
According to the NTSB website, the device is capable of recording for up to 25 hours and resets every two hours. Because it was not reset in time, it is not known what was said at the time of the emergency.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators have hailed the miracle that allowed the 171 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 737-9 Max to survive.
Investigators had asked for help finding the door stopper after the incident and said they believed it was in Cedar Hills – the location where it was ultimately found. Cedar Hills is located in Washington County, Oregon, approximately seven miles west of Portland.
The Washington County Sheriff's Office wrote Sunday afternoon “At this time, we have not been asked to coordinate a specific search and have not received any calls from the public regarding possible debris found.”
“We will be looking at the entire chain of events, from production to the entry into service of this plug-in to the events in the history of this particular aircraft in flight and in service from the beginning to where we are today,” Homendy told NBC News .
A photo shows the blown out area. It is offered as a door on the plane. Alaska decided against this option, even though the frame of the future door was completely torn out by the hull damage
One passenger, Emma Vu, took to TikTok after surviving the horror flight that was in the air for just 20 minutes
Sunday was the first day that investigators fully examined the bizarre incident that left one person with non-life-threatening injuries and forced Alaskan Airlines to ground dozens of its Boeing 737-9 MAX jets for urgent safety checks.
Several other airlines have also decided to ground planes of this model as critics have pointed to other fatal crashes and system failures on this type of jet in recent years.
Its catastrophic failure caused the cabin to depressurize, and the force of the incoming air ripped the shirt off a small boy whose mother was holding him. Passengers also watched as their phones were sucked into the night sky.
Toys, phones and clothing were also sucked into the atmosphere through the gaping hole and luckily no one was sitting in the two seats directly next to the now missing door.
Chilling footage showed fliers looking through the huge hole left from the missing part of the plane at the twinkling lights of Portland below in the eerily quiet cabin.
Passengers reported hearing a “really loud bang” before a “deadly” silence fell over the cabin as the plane made an emergency landing back in Portland about 40 minutes later.
One passenger, Emma Vu, took to TikTok after surviving the horror flight that was in the air for just 20 minutes.
Vu sent a text message to her family saying “I don't want to die” and revealed how scared she was at that moment.
She revealed her panicked text messages to her family, which said: “The masks are down; I'm so scared right now; Please pray for me; Please, I don't want to die.'
Vu said she was sleeping when the devastating safety failure erupted out of the blue when she “felt the entire plane crashing.”
“The masks fell and people screamed,” she continued, alongside a tearful selfie she took at the moment she feared could be her last.
“I'm so grateful for the ladies who sat next to me…they were kind enough to calm me down and the flight attendants gave oxygen tanks to those who needed it more,” she said.
In audio recordings from the cockpit, the pilot could be heard calling for emergency help over the radio and saying: “Portland approach, Alaska 1282 emergency!” The aircraft is now leveling 12,000 in a left turn towards three, four, zero.
Oxygen masks hang from the plane's ceiling while the dark night can be seen from the plane through the huge, gaping hole that remains
In audio recordings from the cockpit, the pilot could be heard calling for emergency help over the radio and saying: “Portland approach, Alaska 1282 emergency!” The aircraft is now leveling 12,000 in a left turn towards three, four, zero.
“We need a distraction.” We have declared an emergency. We are out of pressure. We have 177 passengers on board and a seal is…18,900', the pilot is heard explaining.
The back of 26A's seat, which was right next to the door, was completely ripped off.
The headrests of seats 25A and 26A were also torn off as pieces of clothing were scattered around the area, Homendy said.
“The video looks very calm, but I'm sure it was completely chaotic and very loud,” she said.
She went on to say that the outcome would have been much worse if the door had separated from the aircraft before it reached cruising altitude when passengers were allowed to remove their seatbelts.
Passenger Nick Hoch, 33, told CNN he was sitting on the left side, just a few rows from where the piece came off, when “fog or clouds” passed him and hit his face.
“There have been people that I've talked to a lot more closely who have lost their AirPods out of their ears,” Hoch said.
A passenger wearing an oxygen mask is seen looking back in despair, while 171 passengers were left terrified after part of the plane flew off in mid-air
Alaskan Airlines decided to ground dozens of its Boeing 737-9 MAX jets for urgent safety checks following the incident
The plug-in door serves as an emergency exit when the aircraft is designed to carry more passengers, but in the configuration used by Alaska it is sealed and not visible from the inside.
In emergencies above 12,000 feet, oxygen is needed to prevent hypoxia – lack of oxygen – which can cause dizziness, unconsciousness and permanent brain damage.
Records from FlightAware and the Federal Aviation Administration showed the plane involved in the incident had been in service for about three months and had flown about 150 times since October 2023.
Alaska Airlines said 18 of the Boeing 737-9 Max planes were inspected and returned on Saturday but were soon returned and will be removed “until details of possible additional maintenance are confirmed with the FAA.”