Alaska Airlines has announced it is grounding dozens of Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets for safety checks after a cabin panel blowout forced a brand-new airplane loaded with passengers to make an emergency landing.
Flight 1282 had reached just over 16,000 feet when the blowout happened, according to FlightRadar24.
A fuselage plug tore off the left side of the jet shortly as it climbed out of Portland, Oregon, en route for Ontario in California on Friday, forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with 171 passengers and six crew on board.
It is the latest mishap involving the MAX, Boeing’s best-selling model, which was grounded for almost two years following crashes in 2018 and 2019. Boeing is also dealing with a succession of production or quality problems.
The company told airlines in December to inspect the planes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder-control system.
According to Reuters, Airline CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement its fleet of 65 similar planes would be returned to service only after precautionary maintenance and safety inspections, which he expected to be completed in the "next few days".
U.S. aviation authorities announced an investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board said on Saturday a team of experts in structures, operations and systems would arrive on the scene later that day.
Boeing also said it was looking into the incident.
"We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer," Boeing said.
WestJet and Air Canada both have the Boeing 737 Max 8 in their fleet, but neither flies the Max 9 at this time, according to their respective website fleet detail pages.
In a New York Times article, United Airlines is noted as having 79 Max 9s in service, the most of any airline, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. All told, there are 215 Max 9 aircraft in service around the world, United and Alaska Airlines have about a third of them.
