US grounds Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after Alaska Airlines flight loses part of fuselage at 16,000ft

6 January 2024, 18:15

The US aviation regulator has grounded 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after part of an Alaska Airlines flight's fuselage fell off at 16,000ft on Friday.

The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) says it will inspect 171 in response to the shocking scenes yesterday evening.

Passengers have described how a child had to be held to his seat by his mother as part of a plane's fuselage blew out, leaving a gaping hole in the aircraft.

Travellers were left horrified after the incident forced the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 to turn around at 16,000ft and return to Portland International Airport in Oregon.

Footage taken onboard shows passengers anxiously wait for the emergency landing as they breathe into oxygen masks, with the cabin having depressurised.

They tell each other it was lucky nobody had sat next to the part that blew out.

The Association of Flight Attendants at Alaska Airlines described the decompression was "explosive".

One passenger told Portland news station KPTV that a mother held her child to his seat.

Phones were sucked out of the plane, while a child near to the blow-out lost his shirt as the cabin depressurised.

A huge hole can be seen in the left hand side of the fuselage.

Kyle Rinker told CNN: "It was really abrupt. Just got to altitude, and the window/wall just popped off and didn't notice it until the oxygen masks came off."

Vi Nguyen told the New York Times she woke up to see an oxygen mask dangling in front of her.

"And I look to the left and the wall on the side of the plane is gone. The first thing I thought was, 'I'm going to die'," she said.

"A part of the plane flew off not even 20 minutes into our flight," said one person who posted the terror on TikTok.

Read more: Passengers terrified as part of fuselage blows out forcing emergency landing as airline grounds aircraft

The pilot told air traffic control that there was an emergency, and the plane had depressurised and needed to come back.

All 174 passengers and six crew members were safe, though one crew member was slightly injured, and Alaska Airlines has grounded its 737-9 fleet.

Read more: Pilots of Japanese plane involved in horror crash didn't realise aircraft was on fire until told by crew

Ben Minicucci, the chief executive of Alaska Airlines, said: "Following tonight's event on Flight 1282, we have decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft."

The aircraft will be brought back into use after repairs and safety inspections, which are expected to last just days.

The US National Transportation Safety Board said it was looking into what happened, as did the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The Boeing 737-9 Max was certified two months ago and has flown 145 times since mid November.

The model is the newest version of the 737.

All Max 8 and Max 9 planes were grounded for two years after two Max 8s crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing more than 300 people.

Boeing had to make changes to the automated flight control system before they were put back into service.

The company said it was gathering more information about what happened in this incident.

"We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282," it said.

"We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer.

"A Boeing technical team stands ready to support the investigation."

In December, it told airlines to inspect planes for a potential loose bolt in the rudder control system.

And last year, the FAA urged pilots to limit their use of an anti-ice system because of fears that inlets near the engines could over heat, break away and hit the plane.