Alaska Airlines grounded its fleet of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft after a flight operated by the airline Friday night at Portland International Airport in Oregon due to a mid-air pressure problem that caused part of the plane's fuselage to explode, according to passengers. had made an emergency landing.
The airline said Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 made a safe emergency landing with 171 passengers and six crew at Portland Airport shortly after takeoff for Ontario, California. Within hours, the company announced that all of the airline's 65 Boeing 737s would be grounded, up to a maximum of 9 aircraft, until each aircraft could be inspected. The aircraft makes up about a fifth of its fleet. A statement said it expected to complete inspections within a few days.
Passengers on the flight described a disturbing experience during the approximately 15 minutes the plane returned to the airport. As yellow oxygen masks dangled above their heads, a strong wind blew through a gaping hole that showed the night sky and city lights below.
The crew reported a “pressure issue” before the emergency landing, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a separate statement. The Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant Association said the decompression was “explosive” and one flight attendant suffered minor injuries.
One passenger, Vi Nguyen of Portland, said she was woken up by a loud noise during the flight. Then she saw a large hole in the side of the plane.
“I open my eyes and the first thing I see is the oxygen mask right in front of me,” said Ms. Nguyen, 22. “And when I look to the left, the wall on the side of the plane has disappeared.”
“The first thing I thought was, 'I'm going to die,'” she added.
Her friend Elizabeth Le, 20, said she also heard “an extremely loud bang.” When she looked up, she saw a large hole in the wall of the plane about two or three rows away, she said.
Ms Le said no one was sitting in the window seat next to the missing fuselage, but that a teenager and his mother were sitting in the middle and aisle seats. Flight attendants helped them move to the other side of the plane a few minutes later, she said. The boy appeared to have lost his shirt and his skin looked red and irritated, she added.
“It was honestly terrible,” she said. “I almost collapsed, but I realized I had to stay calm.”
There were announcements over the public address system, but none could be heard because the wind whipping through the plane was so loud, she said. After the plane landed, paramedics came on board to ask if anyone was injured, she added. A man sitting in the row directly behind the hole said he injured his foot.
Ms Le said passengers were not given an explanation for the incident. In a video she recorded from the flight, passengers can be heard clapping after landing. “Oh my God,” someone says.
After landing, Ms. Le said she and her friends would board another flight to Ontario later that night.
Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 took off for Ontario International Airport at 5:07 p.m. and diverted back to Portland six minutes later, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website. It reached a maximum altitude of about 16,000 feet when its speed was more than 440 miles per hour, landing in Portland at 5:27 p.m
The exact cause of the air problem was unclear until early Saturday morning. Keith Tonkin, the managing director of Aviation Projects, an aviation consulting firm in Brisbane, Australia, said an excessive difference in air pressure inside and outside the cabin may have caused the wall to break off.
Passengers could probably breathe normally even when the plane was at its highest altitude, Mr Tonkin added.
The plane was new and was certified in November, according to the FAA aircraft registry. It began commercial service this month and has recorded 145 flights since then, according to Flightradar24, another flight tracking site.
Representatives from Alaska Airlines, the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board said they were investigating the incident.
Boeing said in a statement that it was “aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” adding: “We are working to gather additional information and are in contact with our airline customer.”
The 737 Max has come under scrutiny from regulators around the world in recent years. In December, Boeing asked airlines to inspect all 737 Max aircraft for a possible loose screw in the rudder control system after an international airline discovered a screw with a missing nut during routine maintenance. Alaska Airlines said at the time that it expected to complete inspections of its fleet in the first half of January.
It was another development in the difficult history of the aircraft, a single-aisle workplane designed for short and medium distances.
In 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the sea off the coast of Indonesia, killing all 189 passengers and crew. Less than five months later, in 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed shortly after leaving the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board.
After the two crashes, the Max remained grounded worldwide. Boeing made changes to the plane, including to the flight control system that was behind the crashes, and the FAA cleared it to fly again in late 2020. In 2021, the company agreed to a $2.5 billion settlement with the Justice Department, resolving a criminal allegation that Boeing conspired to defraud the agency.
Mark Walker contributed reporting.