On January 5th, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 had an incident in which a fuselage panel ripped off while it was 16,000 feet in the air. The plane departed from Portland, OR and had to perform an emergency landing back in Portland. Miraculously, the panel that was ripped off had no passengers sitting in the seats directly next to it. Though a teenage passenger, Jack, reports that the pressure ripped his shirt off and he had to be rushed to a farther part of the plane. Luckily, none of the other passengers were injured.
This is not the first issue the Boeing 737 Max has faced. The Boeing 737 Max is a passenger plane made in 2017, manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. When it debuted it was marketed as a more fuel efficient and bigger version of the prior model 8. In October 2018, through Lion Air, a Boeing 737 Max crashed and in March 2019 another Boeing flying for Ethiopian Airlines crashed leaving 346 dead. These accidents resulted in the grounding of the aircraft. Once again the Boeing was grounded for inspections and according to the Alaska Airlines website, it was grounded until January 17th, but nothing else has come out about the planes being back in flight.
The aftermath of this resulted in numerous cancellations at Alaska Airlines especially paired with various winter storms. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has put no rush into letting Boeing back in the skies even if that means more cancellations and delays of flights.
“Our only concern is the safety of American travelers and the Boeing 737-9 MAX will not return to the skies until we are entirely satisfied it is safe,” said FAA Administrator: Mike Whitaker, in an official statement.
