After an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 plane made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, on Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered some U.S. airlines to suspend some Max 9 planes pending inspection. ordered to stop using it. The order affects about 171 aircraft owned by Alaska Airlines, United Airlines and other airlines. The episode also raised troubling new questions about the safety of the flagship aircraft design, which has had longstanding problems and multiple fatal crashes.
There were no serious injuries in Friday’s incident. The jetliner returned to Portland’s airport shortly after part of its fuselage broke apart in midair, leaving a door-sized hole in the side of the plane.
Within hours of the episode, Alaska Airlines Said The airline plans to ground all 65 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft in its fleet until mechanics can carefully inspect each plane. Late Saturday, the FAA ordered the temporary grounding of some aircraft from other airlines. The airline with the most aircraft affected was United Airlines, which has 79 Max 9s.
Late Saturday, Jennifer Homendy, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is responsible for investigating the plane crash, said the plug on one of the plane’s unnecessary emergency doors was torn off 10 minutes after the plane took off from the airport. announced. Altitude approximately 16,000 feet.
Homendy said investigators plan to compare the plug from the second emergency door on the other side of the aisle with the plug from the door that blew out in hopes of determining what went wrong. Stated. He added that investigators would also look into the pressurization system and the plane’s maintenance records.
And while the particular problem that sparked Friday’s scare seemed unique, Boeing Co.’s 737 Max airliner has perhaps the most worrying history of any modern jetliner currently in service. There is.
By Sunday evening, Boeing and the FAA were still working on drafting a message to airlines with instructions on how to inspect planes, according to people familiar with the process.
What happened on Friday?
Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, bound for Ontario, California, carrying 171 passengers and six crew members, made an emergency landing at Portland Airport on Friday evening, 20 minutes after takeoff.
Passengers on board the plane reported hearing a loud bang and then noticing that part of the fuselage had opened up in the air.
For several minutes before the emergency landing, passengers were unable to hear emergency announcements over the public address system as oxygen masks hung from the ceiling and winds blew through holes in the walls.
The plane involved in Friday’s incident was virtually new by commercial airline standards. It was first registered in November and had only 145 recorded flights.
What is the history of the 737 Max?
In 2018 and 2019, two crashes involving Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft killed a total of 346 people in less than five months. It was later determined that both crashes were related to a malfunction in a system that overrode the pilot’s commands.
These crashes led to a global grounding of the Boeing 737 Max, with hundreds of planes grounded for nearly two years while engineers worked to identify and resolve the problems so regulators could recertify the planes. were parked on tarmacs around the world.
The first crash occurred in October 2018, when a jetliner carrying 189 people crashed into the Java Sea just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, Indonesia. Four months later, another 737 Max operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed shortly after takeoff en route to Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board, including eight crew members.
Days later, President Donald J. Trump announced that while investigators and Boeing were trying to figure out how a software system that was supposed to make planes safer, instead played a role in the disaster. US regulators have announced that they are temporarily suspending all flights by Boeing 737 MAX. .
U.S. regulators were the last to ground the model, but did so after mounting pressure and 42 other countries taking drastic measures to prevent further accidents.
Competitive pressures, flawed designs, and questionable oversight all ultimately contributed to Boeing’s best-selling jet in history, with hundreds of billions of dollars in pre-orders from airlines, as reported by The New York Times and elsewhere. It turns out the octopus played a role in the plane’s troubled history. Around the world when it was stopped.
What was the fallout?
Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion in a settlement with the Justice Department in 2021 to resolve criminal charges that it conspired to defraud the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the company and evaluates its aircraft.
In 2022, Boeing faces U.S. securities regulations over accusations that the company misled investors by suggesting human error was to blame for two deadly crashes and ignoring its concerns about the planes. It paid an additional $200 million in contracts with authorities.
By the time the plane was recertified 20 months after the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, Boeing estimated the crisis had cost the company $20.7 billion.
Which airlines are using the 737 Max 9?
Part of Boeing’s single-aisle 737 Max series, the Max 9 can carry up to 220 passengers depending on seating configuration. United Airlines operates 79 Max 9s, the most of any airline, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. In total, there are 215 Max 9 aircraft in service around the world, Cirium said. United Airlines and Alaska Airlines own about a third of it.
Other companies operating the Max 9 include Copa Airlines in Panama and Aeromexico in the Americas, SCAT Airlines in Kazakhstan, Icelandair, Turkish Airlines and flydubai.
A flydubai spokesperson said the company has three 737 Max 9 jets in its fleet. It said it has completed the required safety inspections in the past 24 months and is awaiting guidance from Boeing before conducting further inspections.
What happens next?
Serious aviation safety incidents, even those that do not result in injury or loss of life, typically require immediate review by regulators in the United States, the European Union, and China.
Investigators look at everything from aircraft design to aircraft design. its manufacturing, maintenance and inspection history; weather; air traffic control decisions; and flight crew actions. They explore the causes of the accident and lessons for aviation safety.
In the case of the Alaska Airlines incident, the plane was manufactured in the United States and lost part of its fuselage while flying within the United States. Therefore, the National Transportation Safety Board will be the lead agency in charge of investigating this incident.
Safety investigations can take months. These include technical experts from the government, the airline that operated the aircraft, trade unions, and the aircraft manufacturer (in this case Boeing).
The FAA does not have to wait for the safety board’s report before deciding whether to ground an aircraft model or order an expedited inspection. Airlines typically rush to check aircraft as soon as they know what to check.
What does landing mean for air travelers?
Airlines may have to cancel flights due to a lack of aircraft to replace grounded models, putting a strain on travelers when one of the industry’s flagship aircraft is grounded. there is a possibility.
By Sunday afternoon, United Airlines said it had canceled about 270 Max 9 flights scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, though some of those cancellations may be due to severe winter weather in the Northeast.
Alaska Airlines said 170 flights had been canceled by Sunday night, impacting about 25,000 customers. Foreign airlines, including Turkish Airlines and Panama’s Copa Airlines, also parked Max 9 planes.
The state of Alaska has issued a “system-wide”. flexible travel policy” allows passengers to cancel or change their flights without incurring any fees. The airline is encouraging travelers to use the Alaska website or app themselves rather than calling the airline’s customer service line.
Get the latest information on United Airlines flight status online.If your flight is significantly delayed, United Airlines will Waive change fees or grant a travel credit or refund. The airline has not announced any specific exemptions related to aircraft inspections that would further relax the policy.
Depending on the circumstances, travelers may also be entitled to compensation if their flight is delayed or cancelled.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said in a message to employees that the company will hold a livestreamed company-wide meeting on Tuesday to discuss its response to the accident. He reiterated the company’s commitment to “safety, quality, integrity and transparency.”