STEPHEN BRASHEAR/Getty Images via AFP
Alaska Airlines has grounded its 737 MAX 9 after a window came loose during a flight between Portland and Ontario.
INTERNATIONAL – Total standstill after an unimaginable accident. An emergency directive from the American Federal Civil Aviation Agency (FAA) ordered this Saturday, January 6, the suspension of flights of Boeing 737-max 9 aircraft for an immediate inspection. In total, no fewer than 171 aircraft have to be checked.
This flight stop is the result of a worrying accident that occurred this Friday on a device of the same model. Shortly after takeoff, a door came off in mid-flight. This Alaska Airlines plane, which departed from Portland International Airport for Ontario, California, was carrying 171 passengers and 6 crew members.
According to flight data from the FlightAware website, it was at an altitude of almost 5,000 m at the time. After turning around, the plane landed back at its original airport, as you can see in the video below. Fortunately, the incident only caused a few minor injuries.
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Mandatory inspection before every new flight
After this accident, the American airline Alaska neutralized all 65 aircraft of this model. This Saturday, the social network indicated “elements of concern”. The American traffic safety authority NTSB announced that it had sent a team to Portland to investigate the reasons for this disruption.
Without waiting for these conclusions, the American Civil Aviation Administration “requires operators (airlines) to inspect the aircraft before a new flight,” it said in a press release, since this process took between 4 and 8 hours of flight. According to information from Boeing to AFP, around 218 copies of the 737 MAX 9 have been delivered so far. United Airlines and Alaska Airlines have the largest fleets in the world. Icelandair and Turkish Airlines also use them.
A number of technical problems
The device's manufacturer, American aircraft manufacturer Boeing, said it was gathering more information and providing a technical team to investigators, according to a response to AFP. Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement that the airline is “working with Boeing and regulators to understand what happened.”
The incident comes after the 737 MAX suffered a series of technical problems and two crashes in recent years. These two accidents, which killed 346 people in October 2018 and March 2019, resulted in the 737 MAX being grounded for 20 months before being cleared to fly again. Most recently, Boeing had to slow deliveries due to problems with the fuselage, particularly the aircraft's rear bulkhead.
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