NEWS: Alaska Airlines Responds to Friday Emergency Landing Incident, Grounds Fleet of Boeing 737 Planes

Alaska Airlines has grounded its fleet of Boeing 737 Max 9 jets in response to an incident on Friday that resulted in an emergency landing.

©Alaska Airlines

On Friday evening, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 made a safe emergency landing at the Portland airport shortly after takeoff for Ontario, California. The emergency landing was caused by a midair pressure problem that passengers said blew out a portion of the plane’s fuselage.

Friday night, an Alaska Airlines flight carrying 171 passengers and six crew members made a safe emergency landing at the Portland airport. Within hours of the incident, the company announced it was grounding all 65 of its Boeing 737 Max 9 jets until it could inspect each plane, a process which is expected to take several days. Those planes make up roughly a fifth of the airline’s total fleet.

©️Alaska Airlines

Passengers on Friday’s flight described an alarming experience during the approximately 15 minutes in which the plane was returning to the airport. One passenger, Vi Nguyen of Portland, said she woke up to a loud sound, and then she saw a large hole in the side of the aircraft. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the crew reported a “pressurization issue” before the emergency landing. The Association of Flight Attendants at Alaska Airlines said that the decompression was “explosive,” and one attendant had sustained minor injuries.

©Alaska Airlines

As of early Saturday, the cause of the incident was unclear. Keith Tonkin, the managing director of Aviation Projects, an aviation consulting company in Brisbane, Australia, said an excessive difference in the air pressure inside versus outside the cabin could have caused the wall to break off. The plane was new, having been certified and entering commercial service in November, and has since logged 145 flights. Representatives for Alaska Airlines, the FAA, and the National Transportation Safety Board have all said they are investigating the incident.

Statement from Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci ©Alaska Airlines

UPDATE: Alaska Airlines shared on January 6th that “As of this morning, inspections on more than a quarter of our 737-9 fleet are complete with no concerning findings. Aircraft will return to service as their inspections are completed with our full confidence.”

As of this morning, inspections on more than a quarter of our 737-9 fleet are complete with no concerning findings. Aircraft will return to service as their inspections are completed with our full confidence.

— Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) January 6, 2024

UPDATE: On January 6th at 3:34PM, Alaska Airlines said they had completed inspection of 18 of their Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircrafts with no issues and they would return to service. They will continue to test the remaining aircrafts over the coming days.

For updates & more information visit: https://t.co/KTTI7mnghK pic.twitter.com/naOL10ahyk

— Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) January 6, 2024

At 4:02PM on January 6th, United Airlines shared that they decided to temporarily suspend service on select Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircrafts to conduct an inspection required by the FAA.