Alaska Airlines flight was headed for maintenance the same day door plug blew off: report
The Alaska Airlines Boeing jet involved in a near-disaster when a door plug blew out at 16,000 feet had been scheduled to undergo maintenance that night, it has emerged.
The Boeing 737 MAX 9 carrying 177 people was forced to make an emergency landing on Jan. 5 — with an investigation later showing that there had been no bolts on the door plug that flew off mid-air.
It has now emerged that the day before that flight, engineers and technicians were so concerned about mounting warnings they wanted to take the jet out of service for maintenance on Jan. 5, immediately after what turned out to be a near-disastrous journey, The New York Times first revealed.
Alaska Airlines kept the plane in service with some restrictions, the outlet reported, citing interviews and documents.
The airline confirmed the sequence of events to the Times, while noting that the warnings did not meet its standards for immediately removing the plane from service.
The light indicating problems with the pressurization system had come on twice in the previous 10 days — not the three times that would demand immediate action, the airline’s vice president for maintenance and engineering, Donald Wright, told the Times.
The company also insisted there is no evidence the warning lights were related to the eventual blowout.
“From my perspective as the safety guy, looking at all the data, all the leading indicators, there was nothing that would drive me to make a different decision,” Max Tidwell, the airline’s VP for safety and security, told The Times.
The airline said its engineers had called for the plane to undergo a thorough maintenance check on Jan. 5 to determine why the warning lights came on based on their use of “a predictive tool” rather than on the number of times they had gone off.
The plane was reportedly restricted from flying long-haul routes over water or remote continental areas in case of the need for an emergency landing.
The National Transportation Safety Board last month said in a preliminary report that four bolts that secure the door plug were missing before the panel blew off the plane.
Catch up on Boeing's ongoing airplane fiasco
Boeing has recently been plagued by safety concerns that began Jan. 5 after a door panel blew off a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet during a flight from Oregon to California. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the plane — which was operated by Alaska Airlines — appeared to be missing four key bolts.
Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, threatened to shun Boeing after the carrier’s fleet of MAX 9 aircraft was grounded in the wake of the near-disastrous Alaska Airlines door blowout.
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, warned that another midair door blowout like the Boeing 737 MAX 9 fiasco “can happen again,” adding there was a “problem with the process” of production.
Disaster struck again a week after the initial incident when a Boeing plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Japan due to a crack in the cockpit window.
A Boeing 757 lost its front tire as the aircraft was preparing to depart for an international flight in late January. At Atlanta International Airport, a Delta flight bound for Bogota, Colombia, was taxiing across the runway into takeoff position when another plane alerted the control tower that something was amiss.
Later, a UK passenger was alarmed after noticing pieces of tape on the exterior of a Boeing 787 during a flight to India, as seen in shocking photos.
A United Airlines Boeing 777-300 aircraft suffered a midair fuel leak and was forced to make an emergency landing Monday, March 11, marking the fifth incident the airline reported in a little over a week.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary previously said he’s made “loud complaints” to Boeing over quality control.
Whistleblower John Barnett raised safety concerns at the airline’s factories and provided his first testimony at a bombshell lawsuit against Boeing. He was found dead in his truck after he failed to show up for the second part of his testimony on Monday.
The agency described a series of events that occurred at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, that may have led to the MAX 9 being delivered without the bolts.
About a week before the incident, the plane had been taken out of service because of an issue with the front passenger entry and exit door, The Times also reported.
Last week, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said that over the 154 flights the plane had flown since entering service, small movements of the plug had left marks and possibly created a gap between the panel and the fuselage.
“The US aviation system is the safest in the world because it relies on layers: redundant systems, robust processes and procedures, and the willingness to stop and ensure things are right before every takeoff,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement to CNN.
“We remain confident in our maintenance and safety actions leading up to the incident. We look forward to continuing our participation in a robust investigation led by the NTSB to ensure something like this never happens again,” it added.
