FAA Grounds Boeing 737 MAX 9 Aircraft After Alaska Airlines Incident

This story is updating. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is grounding certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft a day after an Alaska Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing after losing a window onboard. The order will impact 171 airplanes worldwide.

“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 FAA, in its Emergency Airworthiness Directive (EAD), said that it will now require airlines to undertake inspections of their MAX 9 fleet before returning them to operation. 

According to the FAA, the required inspections will take around four to eight hours per aircraft. In terms of overall timeline, Alaska Airlines, which has a fleet of 65 MAX 9 aircraft, said on Saturday that it expects all “inspections will be completed in the next few days.” That means that a significant percentage of Alaska’s fleet will be grounded at least for the “next few days,” likely forcing cancellations for some Alaska passengers. 

The other big North American carrier with MAX 9 aircraft in service is United Airlines, which has 79. Other international carriers with the aircraft include Aeromexico, Iceland Air, Turkish Airlines, and FlyDubai. 

Alaska Flight 1282
The decision stems from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, scheduled to travel from Portland International Airport (PDX) on Friday night to Ontario International Airport (ONT) in California. 

The flight was forced to make an emergency landing back at Portland International about a half hour after takeoff because a piece of fuselage on the side of the plane reportedly blew out, taking one of the passenger side windows with it, and rapidly decompressing the cabin. 

Videos from passengers onboard were posted on social media showing the aftermath: 

@strawberr.vy Girls’ trip turned into emergency landing trip… #alaska #alaskaair ? original sound – vy ??

The plane, which had been in service for just eight weeks, landed in Portland “safely,” according to Alaska, with all 171 guests and 6 crew members onboard. Alaska worked to accommodate the impacted guests as “quickly as possible” and Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci quickly apologized to all involved. 

“My heart goes out to those who were on this flight – I am so sorry for what you experienced. I am so grateful for the response of our pilots and flight attendants. We have teams on the ground in Portland assisting passengers and are working to support guests who are traveling in the days ahead,” he said on Friday night.