US grounds Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes after mid-flight blowout

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 Max flies above Paine Field near Boeing’s manufacturing facility in Everett, Washington, on March 23, 2020.  © Ted S. Warren, AP

U.S. regulators have ordered the temporary grounding of 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft following a cabin panel blowout late Friday that forced a brand-new airplane operated by Alaska Airlines to make an emergency landing.

“The FAA is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said on Saturday. “Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSB’s investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.”

The piece of fuselage tore off the left side of the jet as it climbed out of Portland, Oregon, en route for Ontario in California on Friday, forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with 171 passengers and six crew on board.

The new MAX 9 had been in service for just eight weeks. It is the latest mishap involving Boeing’s best-selling model, which was grounded for almost two years following crashes in 2018 and 2019, and comes as Boeing and a major supplier are grappling with a succession of production or quality problems.

There were no immediate indications of the cause of the apparent structural failure, nor any reports of injuries. Alaska Airlines had alreaady started grounding dozens of the Boeing jets for safety checks.

As of Saturday morning, Alaska said it had completed more than a quarter of the inspections and found no issues. Several of the jets were flying, according to tracking site FlightRadar24.

Alaska Airline CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement its fleet of 65 similar planes would be returned to service only after precautionary maintenance and safety inspections, which he expected to be completed in the “next few days.”

The National Transportation Safety Board said a team of experts in structures, operations and systems would arrive on the scene later on Saturday to begin an investigation. Boeing said it was working to gather more information and was in contact with the airline. Flight 1282 had reached just over 16,000 feet when the blowout happened, according to FlightRadar24.

“We’d like to get down,” the pilot told air traffic control, according to a recording posted on liveatc.net. “We are declaring an emergency. We do need to come down to 10,000,” the pilot added, referring to the initial staging altitude for such emergencies, below which breathing is considered possible for healthy people without extra oxygen.

Social media posts showed oxygen masks deployed and a portion of the aircraft’s side wall missing. Passenger photos appeared to show that a section of the fuselage sometimes used for an optional rear mid-cabin exit door had vanished, leaving a neat door-shaped gap.

The extra door is typically installed by low-cost airlines using extra seats that require more paths for evacuation. However, those doors are permanently “plugged,” or deactivated, on some jets including those of Alaska Airlines. It was delivered to Alaska Airlines in late October and certified in early November, according to FAA data.

France24