Plane loses door, 171 detained until inspection
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered the immediate inspection of 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9s, who will be suspended from flying until then, following an accident that occurred during a flight near Portland (Oregon). The FAA directive “requires operators (airlines) to inspect aircraft before a new flight,” the agency writes in a statement, estimating that this operation will take between 4 and 8 hours for each aircraft. According to data provided by Boeing, approximately 218 examples of the 737 MAX 9 have been delivered so far.
Before the FAA's announcement, the US airline Alaska had already grounded all 65 of its planes of this model. The decision followed the accident that occurred last Friday shortly after an Alaska Airlines flight took off from Portland International Airport (Oregon), around 5pm local time, bound for Ontario (California), on the outskirts of Los Angeles. A door opened and detached from the cabin after takeoff. The plane, carrying 171 passengers and six crew members, was at an altitude of nearly 5,000 meters, according to flight data from the FlightAware website. After turning around, the plane returned to land at its home airport, suffering only minor injuries.
The aircraft returned safely to Portland International Airport with all 171 passengers and six crew members on board.”, reads a statement from Alaska Airlines. “It was really brutal. As soon as we were at altitude, the front part of the window came off and I only noticed when the oxygen masks came off,” passenger Kyle Rinker told CNN. According to the Portland newspaper The Oregonian, which quotes some passengers, there was no one in the seat immediately near the exploded bulkhead. But the teenager in the middle seat had his shirt torn off by the decompression, causing minor injuries, according to the newspaper.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called the X “a terrifying incident” and said he was in contact with the FAA. Alaska Airlines said on the social network phase. The US transportation safety agency, the NTSB, announced that it had sent a team to Portland to investigate the causes of the malfunction. The aircraft in question was certified in November. The plane's manufacturer, US-based Boeing, said it was gathering further information and had a technical team available to investigators. United Airlines and Alaska Airlines have the largest fleet of 737-9s in the world. Icelandair and Turkish Airlines also use them.
#Plane #loses #door #terror #flight #Boeings #remain #grounded
