“Is it OK if I take your hand?” » This Friday, January 5, shortly after 5 p.m., Christopher Hickman, 44, boarded Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, sitting in row 8 of a Boeing 737 Max 9 sits, this request from his neighbor. According to the Wall Street Journal story, moments earlier a loud bang sounded on the plane connecting Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, one of the airports in the Los Angeles suburbs. A “blockage” in the fuselage, which replaces a possible additional door in row 26, was literally vacuumed out. A child sees his t-shirt being torn, a teddy bear being sucked in, two cell phones flying into the air, oxygen masks falling, the cockpit door suddenly opening.
Everyone thinks their last hour has come and sends messages to their loved ones. A passenger films the gaping hole in the plane as the pilot turns to make an emergency landing. It's the miracle. The aircraft was in the ascent phase at an altitude of less than 5,000 meters and did not explode. All 171 passengers and six crew members were wearing seatbelts. There were no people sitting in seats 26A and 26B. The aircraft landed in Portland at 5:27 p.m. with no casualties.
Miracle, but also catastrophe for Boeing. This new major failure revives distrust of the 737 Max, after the twin accidents in October 2018 (Lion Air in Indonesia, 189 deaths) and March 2019 (Ethiopian Airlines, 157 deaths) due to a malfunction of the flight stabilization system. Is Boeing a reliable manufacturer? The company hoped to return to the path of growth and composure in 2024.
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Brand new airplane
Monday morning there was distrust on Wall Street. The plane maker's shares fell almost 7% on the stock market as attention focused on the causes of the accident. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered the decommissioning for inspection of 171 Boeing Max 9s, which are mainly operated by United Airlines (79 aircraft) and Alaska Airlines (65 aircraft) in the USA. Both companies had to cancel hundreds of flights. The torn, 28-kilogram piece was found in the garden of a Portland teacher, which will aid the investigation. On the other hand, the recording of the conversations in the cockpit was deleted because it had not been saved – after two hours the conversation was overwritten by the messages.
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Many questions arise. Minor with Alaska Airlines. The affected aircraft had seen one of its pressure control lights illuminate on three previous flights. It is impossible to say whether it was actually a pressure problem or an alarm system failure. The company, which had decided the matter was “benign,” still had enough doubts to ban the plane from flying to Hawaii over the Pacific. It had ordered additional investigations, but these had not been completed before Friday's flight, raising questions about the timeliness of safety inspections.
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