Alaska Airlines flight makes emergency landing after window blows out

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Oregonmama said:
I honestly feel that that area was meant to be made for a door only, not just a window with the bottom panel being plugged in this plane. Alaska wanted it as a window option only. I think the plug did not stabilize that area well enough for extreme pressure. JMO
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And they need those parts back to figure this out.
 
The FAA requirement for an aft door (door behind the wings) is in place for planes that can hold more than 200 passengers.

Alaska configures it's Boeing 737 Max-9 flights for a maximum of 177 people. Thus they are not required to have the aft door.

Having the extra door makes the plane heavier, consuming more fuel, requires another maintenance and testing issue, and complicates the passenger seating, passenger compliance, and the cabin management of safety awareness for the cabin crew.

It would be interesting to see how other similar USA-based short-haul airlines handle these issues. I looked at the Southwest Airlines website and they have large fleet of slightly older Boeing 737 configurations, none of which are licensed to more than 175 seats.

SouthWest Airlines Fleet:​

As of June 30, 2023, Southwest had 803 Boeing 737 aircraft in its fleet:

TypeNumberSeats
737-700408143
737-800207175
737-8188175

Of note: The 737-8 is the Boeing 737-Max 8 which has been in use since 2017

These other SW Airline footnotes:
  • The Company's fleet has an average age of approximately 12 years.
  • In 2022, the Company's average aircraft trip length was 728 miles with an average duration of two hours.
  • Southwest was the launch customer for the Boeing 737-700 in 1997. Southwest also was a launch customer for the Boeing 737-500 and 737-300 series aircraft. And, in December 2011, Southwest announced it would be the launch customer for the Boeing 737 MAX 8.
  • On Oct. 1, 2017, Southwest's first 737 MAX 8 began scheduled service.
(I do not know the difference between the 737-MAX 8 and the 737-MAX 9)
 
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Herat said:
I wonder if Apple could be of any help in locating the missing phones.

Even though they would have been on airplane mode.
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The last few times I’ve flown, I’ve been gobsmacked by how many folks simply disregard this instruction, as evidenced by notification noises/ringtones from incoming calls, etc. Thus, the “Find My iPhone” locator might still work for some of the folks whose phones were sucked outside the cabin, so long as they had the feature enabled prior to the flight and were able to log into their Apple account from another device once they landed.

Off-topic a bit, bur about a week ago my partner and I cancelled a trip to the Caribbean we’d been planning for New Year’s Eve. The main reason was illness, but among the numerous secondary reasons we reluctantly made the last-minute call to bag the trip was that our flight was going to be on a “737-8” (could have been a Max, as the airline has both Max and non-Max models in its fleet) and I had read just a day before our scheduled departure a news report talking about a different problem Boeing had just discovered in some 737 Max aircraft (a missing nut on a bolt used inthe rudder control system, which sounds, uh, pretty serious); the story said Boeing was notifying all airlines in possession of this type of aircraft to check on the area with the potential problem and to remedy the defect if present. Neither of us are overly anxious fliers, but since we were already wondering if the Universe might be throwing us a bunch of last-minute curveballs to keep us from going on this trip, the report about the newly-discovered problem with the Max was the final straw!

 
News conference with NTSB tonight, door should have landed in Cedar hills area/ Barnes Rd (NW PDX) and are asking for residents keep a look out. FBI will be searching too. Our major Hwy 26 that goes in and out of Portland runs through forested area called the West Hills which is in that area . Oregon has big forested areas in Portland metro area so it feels like your driving in a campground but your not. Big hospital is on Barnes Rd as well.
 
Boeing 737 MAX 9s grounded after Alaska Airlines in-flight blowout

“On Saturday, Alaska Airlines said that in the days before Friday’s in-flight incident pilots had filed several reports of intermittent warning lights that indicated some loss of cabin pressure on the jet.
Jason Lai, Alaska’s managing director of engineering, said these pressurization warnings were written up and “resolved per approved maintenance procedures.”
 
djtopcat said:
Last time I flew Alaska was to Sacramento back in August, and the plane was old and trash. They used to be the best domestic carrier in the US...30 years ago lol
I'm flying Delta from now on.
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What's really scary for me, is that I just sent my daughter back to Portland on Alaska a week ago after sending her home on it for Christmas. Think we'll stick to SouthWest Airlines for now.
 
In fairness to Alaska, freaky accidents can happen to any airline. I remember when usually stellar safety record Hawaiian Airlines had the entire top of the plane ripped off years ago! I could be wrong, but Alaska has not had any major disaster crashes except for the one caused by a worn out jack screw in the tail stabilizer which caused a crash off California in 2000.
 
I was very upset in the morning, but now I am thinking, ultimately, it landed safely and what a humongous thank you to the captain, the first officer and the crew we should say. Although of course, the passengers will have to deal now with stress and nightmares, they are alive. Good luck to everyone!
 
Charlot123 said:
I was very upset in the morning, but now I am thinking, ultimately, it landed safely and what a humongous thank you to the captain, the first officer and the crew we should say. Although of course, the passengers will have to deal now with stress and nightmares, they are alive. Good luck to everyone!
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I wish that Websleuths had the hug emoji for this one. Thank you. We've now lost our confidence in Alaska Airlines, which was much nicer than Southwest. But Southwest is also usually cheaper anyways and has much better flight availability. (Alaska is also the airline whose off-duty pilot was on mushrooms and tried to crash another plane recently).
 
LinasK said:
I wish that Websleuths had the hug emoji for this one. Thank you. We've now lost our confidence in Alaska Airlines, which was much nicer than Southwest. But Southwest is also usually cheaper anyways and has much better flight availability. (Alaska is also the airline whose off-duty pilot was on mushrooms and tried to crash another plane recently).
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Alaska has a hub in Seattle, so we are sort of tied up to it I flew SW only once, don't remember anything special either way. As to mushrooms, bad idea; on the other hand, think of how stressed the crew of the flight 1282 are today. (Also, probably happy that the panel blew out early into the flight.) We do need to recognize the need to provide at least normal counseling to pilots, cops and the military.
 
There is not enough money in the world you could pay me to step foot in a MAX plane.

These passengers were very lucky. I doubt it will be the last we hear of more problems with MAX 's.
 
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