FAA Grounds Boeing 737 Max 9 Jets After Fuselage Chunk Blows Off Alaska Airlines Flight

The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered the temporary grounding of 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft following an incident in which a section of fuselage on an Alaska Airlines flight blew away mid-flight.

The FAA’s emergency airworthiness directive will require airlines to inspect certain Max 9 jets before further flight. The inspections will take 4 to 8 hours per jet, the FAA said. The order pertains to U.S. airlines and to Max 9 planes that fly in U.S. airspace, although foreign regulators typically align their directives with U.S. or European regulators when it comes to Boeing and Airbus jets.

“Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSB’s investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement.

The FAA action came roughly 12 hours after Alaska grounded dozens of its Boeing 737 Max 9 jets late Friday after a section of the fuselage blew away during a flight from Portland, Oregon, forcing the crew to make an emergency landing.

No one was seriously injured in the incident, which occurred around 5:13 p.m. local time at 16,000 feet about six minutes after the 737 Max 9 plane had taken off for the flight to Ontario, California, according to FlightAware, the flight-tracking website. Alaska Flight 1282 carried 171 passengers and six crew members.

One flight attendant sustained minor injuries during the “explosive” decompression event, according to AFA-Alaska, the Association of Flight Attendants council that represents Alaska’s flight attendants. 

A teenage boy sitting near the section of cabin that fell away lost his shirt and had red, irritated skin, passenger Elizabeth Le, 20, told The New York Times. Several passengers’ mobile phones were also blown out of the plane, Fox 12-KPTV in Portland reported.

“My heart goes out to those who were on this flight – I am so sorry for what you experienced,” Alaska Airlines Chief Executive Ben Minicucci said in a statement late Friday, announcing that the carrier had grounded its fleet of 65 737-9 aircraft for inspections in the coming days.

The virtually new 737-9, registered as N704AL, was delivered to Alaska in October.

Boeing released a statement Saturday afternoon, promising assistance.

"Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers," according to the statement. "We agree with and fully support the FAA's decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane. In addition, a Boeing technical team is supporting the NTSB's investigation into last night's event."

Besides Alaska, United Airlines also flies the 737 Max 9 in the U.S., and said Saturday that 33 of its 79 Max aircraft had already been inspected. The issue led to United cancelling 60 flights on Saturday.

Internationally, Turkish Airlines, Copa, flyDubai, and Aeromexico also operate the Max 9. 

Alaska said on its X account Saturday around noon ET that it had completed inspections on about 25% of its 737-9 fleet “with no concerning findings.” The grounding had caused the Seattle-based carrier to cancel about 14% of its flights Saturday, according to FlightAware.

The FAA’s Max grounding “is a critical move to ensure the safety of all crew and passengers, as well as confidence in aviation safety,” AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson said in a statement Saturday. “Lives must come first always."

The incident is the latest to dog Boeing’s top-selling aircraft, which has collected more than 4,500 orders from airlines around the world. All of Boeing’s 737 Max planes were grounded for more than 20 months following two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. The company has also struggled with manufacturing defects that have required massive inspections and rework on some parts of the plane.

On Dec. 28, the FAA said it is “closely monitoring” 737 Max inspections for a possible loose bolt in the rudder control system. The agency is also weighing a Boeing request to exempt an overheating problem on the 737s’ engine anti-ice system from precluding certification of the smaller Max 7, with Southwest Airlines as the launch customer.

The rectangular section of affected fuselage is referred to as a “plug door” in that it is used as an emergency exit door on the aircraft for carriers that choose to fit additional seats into the 737 and require the additional exit. For operators with fewer seats, like Alaska, that door space is covered with a regular cabin wall and window.

The plug door is also found on Boeing’s older 737-900ER aircraft, along with the high-density 737 Max 8-200, which is flown by Ryanair and has been ordered by Allegiant Airlines, the Las Vegas-based low-cost carrier. The door is not on Boeing’s smaller Max 7 or Max 8 aircraft.

Over the decades, Boeing has updated the 737 — first introduced in 1967 — with a variety of new wings, technology and engines to make each generation successively more efficient.

There are four 737 Max variants — the 7, 8, 9, 10 — and a high-density version of the Max 8, called the 8200, which can carry as many as 200 passengers. The FAA hasn’t certified the smallest and largest versions of the plane. 

Updated to include a statement from Boeing.