Unforeseen Incident on Alaska Airlines Flight: Door Plug Loss Triggers Turbulent Impact, Causing Chaos Onboard
A Boeing 737 Max 9 recently certified as airworthy, was acquired by Alaska Airlines However, during a flight, it lost its door plug causing significant damage, including ripped headrests and a passenger's shirt being torn off The investigation into the incident continues as the grounding of these planes across the country continues to have far-reaching consequences
The Boeing 737 Max 9 received its airworthiness certificate on October 25, just six days before being adopted by Alaska Airlines. In the subsequent three months, the aircraft completed over 150 flights, with a few raising concerns about pressurization issues that led to restrictions on travel over the ocean. This culminated in a terrifying midair blowout and emergency landing.
Emergency lights tested and reset
A few days into the new year, Fridays Flight 1282 to Southern California appeared no different from any other flight. There was no indication of the widespread grounding of similar aircraft that it would trigger. And certainly, there was no hint of the terror that would soon unfold in the skies above Portland, Oregon.
Some 37 days after it joined the Alaska Airlines fleet, an auto pressurization "fail light" in the Boeing 737 Max 9 lit up.
It happened again on January 3. Then, again on January 4.
The flight crew routinely switched to the backup systems, according to National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy, who described the action as "standard procedure." "They switched it, reported it, maintenance tested it, and then reset it," she clarified.
The National Transportation Safety Board has recovered the door plug that was missing from Alaska Airlines flight 1282, a Boeing 737 MAX 9 that suffered a rapid decompression over Portland, Oregon on Friday. The NTSB has released images related to the investigation.
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On Friday, 171 passengers and six crew members boarded an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California. The flight departed around 5:07 p.m, as reported by FlightAware. The passengers included four unaccompanied minors. The aircraft, which had a total of 220 passenger seats, had just under 50 seats unoccupied, including seats 26A and 26B.
Shortly after taking off, a passenger informed CNN that a section of the aircraft's main body known as the "fuselage plug door," along with a window, unexpectedly detached and flew off at 16,000 feet. The fuselage plug, resembling the interior of a commercial jet, exploded off the plane, causing headrests to be torn off seats and pulling objects out of the aircraft, including a boy's shirt that was completely ripped off his body, as reported by passengers and video footage.
Passengers near the damage on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, Flight 1282, which was forced to return to Portland International Airport on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, as seen in this image from video provided by Elizabeth Le.
Some passengers screamed and cried in confusion as they drafted text messages to their loved ones, uncertain if it might be their last moments. Meanwhile, a rush of air entered the plane and oxygen masks descended from the ceiling.
In a phone interview with CNN, 33-year-old passenger Nick Hoch described the experience as "traumatic," "tense," and "jarring." "A mist or cloud whooshed past me and kind of hit me in the face," he said, adding, "People's hair was flying all over the place."
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He felt disoriented and noticed that others were experiencing the same fear. Hoch was seated on the left side of the plane, just a few rows ahead of where the panel blew off. Alaska Airlines confirmed that despite the incident, there were no passengers assigned to seats 26A and 26B, which were right next to the plug door that blew off.
Stephanie King, a fellow passenger on the flight, was seated in the aisle in row 12 on her way home to California. She recalled hearing a loud roar of wind, and despite being several rows away from seats 26A and 26B, she had a gut feeling that something had gone wrong.
King conveyed that one of the women was shrieking and in tears, inconsolable as she repeatedly cried out, "My son! My son! His shirt was ripped off!" The situation felt completely unreal to him.
Emma Vu, another passenger, was asleep and was startled awake by a falling sensation and the sight of emergency masks dropping down, as she recounted to CNN. She seemed to have woken up after the panel section had come loose; it wasn't certain how near she was to the section that had gone missing.
Vu texted her parents their code word for emergencies to let them know about the incident.
"Ive never had to use it before, but I knew that this was that moment," she said.
Investigation involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on a Boeing 737-9 Max in Portland, Oregon.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported that after a section of the aircraft detached, passengers remained surprisingly composed as they followed the flight crew's directions. However, passenger King stated that despite announcements from the flight attendants, the noise from the open plane made it difficult for her to hear the instructions clearly.
Once the part blew out, "chaos" erupted, according to Homendy, who recounted a flight attendant's firsthand experience. The change in pressure caused the cockpit door to open and collide with the lavatory door. "The first officer had her headset pulled off, and the captain had a portion of the headset pulled off," she explained. In addition, a laminated procedural checklist flew into the cabin.
"We'd like to descend," the pilot informed air traffic control in a recording posted on liveatc.net. "We are declaring an emergency. We need to descend to 10,000."
Alaska Airlines flight 1282 safely landed within 20 minutes of takeoff. One person was taken to the hospital and several others required medical attention, but all have since been medically cleared.
Ripple effects of nationwide grounding continue to mount amid investigation
On Saturday, the FAA ordered all Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft to be grounded nationwide until they are carefully inspected.
Numerous flights from top airlines like Alaska and United have been canceled. There is no indication from either the airlines or the FAA on when the planes will be back in service.
Alaska has currently halted 18 of its 737-9 Max aircraft after being inspected and will remain out of service "until further maintenance work is confirmed with the FAA," the airline stated.
Cockpit voice recorders only retain two hours of data at a time, sometimes frustrating investigators.
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As the investigation into the incident progresses, the situation is further complicated by the loss of vital cockpit audio recordings due to a device setting, according to Homendy.
The cockpit voice recorder, which captures engine noises and pilot voices, was "completely overwritten." Homendy explained in a news conference that the devices are currently only mandated to store two hours of audio at a time.
The refrigerator-sized fuselage door plug was initially missing, but was eventually discovered in the yard of a schoolteacher named Bob in Portland. It is uncertain whether there is any connection between the warning lights and the incident on Friday, but for the numerous passengers on Alaska Airlines flight 1282, their flight experience was far from ordinary.
Investigation involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on a Boeing 737-9 Max in Portland, Oregon.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the repeated pressurization alert issue with Boeing and Alaska Airlines. Board member Homendy expressed concern about the issue, but noted that it may not be related to what occurred inside the aircraft during the event, suggesting that the alert light itself may be faulty.
Unanswered questions remain over previous warnings about the planes pressurization and whether other Boeing aircraft are safe to fly.
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Homendy stated that the current priority is to investigate the aircraft to understand the cause of the incident, prevent future occurrences, and potentially issue urgent safety recommendations if necessary.
NTSB officials will persist in the meticulous inspection of the plane's interior and the recovery and analysis of the detached door plug, according to Homendy.
Spirit AeroSystems, the supplier responsible for manufacturing the fuselage of Boeing's 737 Max jets, has stated that it is collaborating with Boeing to address the issue. Likewise, Alaska Airlines has announced that it is also working with Boeing to investigate the incident.
CNNs Paradise Afshar, Elizabeth Wolfe, Sara Smart, Sharif Paget, Pete Muntean and Raja Razek contributed to this report.
