FAA Alaska Airlines incident 737 Max jets temporary grounding

FAA orders temporary grounding and inspections of some Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft after a fuselage section blew out midair.

The Federal Aviation Administration has announced that it will be ordering the temporary grounding and inspections of some Boeing Co. 737 Max 9 aircraft operated by US carriers. This decision comes after a fuselage section on a brand-new Alaska Airways jet blew out shortly after takeoff, affecting about 171 planes worldwide.

The FAA statement revealed that Alaska, the world's second biggest operator of the type, had already grounded its Max 9 fleet following the incident, and United Airlines Holdings Inc., the model's top operator, also took some of the jets out of service for inspections.

"Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSB's investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282," said FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker in a post on X.

This forced grounding marks the most severe response to an incident since the manufacturer's entire fleet of Max aircraft was temporarily taken out of service in 2019 following two deadly crashes. The 737 Max is Boeing's most popular aircraft and its biggest source of revenue. It is widely used on shorter routes, competing with the Airbus SE A320neo family.

Only two US airlines operate the 737 Max 9 variant: United, with 78, and Alaska with 65. Alaska Airlines has completed inspections on "more than a quarter" of its 737-9 fleet, without making any concerning findings. The carrier will begin returning the jets to service once the "inspections are completed with our full confidence," it added.

Flight 1282, carrying 171 passengers and six crew from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California on Jan. 5, reported a pressurization issue about 20 minutes into the journey. This led to a rear left part of the fuselage blowing out, leaving a hole resembling the opening for a door, all at a flight altitude of about 16,000 feet (4,800 meters).

Inside the aircraft, part of the cabin wall had also torn off, exposing insulation material, as shown in images on social media. Video footage showed the aircraft landing in Portland again in darkness, with passengers seated close to the gaping hole. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured.

"All of a sudden I heard a big bang," said Elizabeth Le, a passenger on the flight. "Then I look to my left and there's this huge chunk, part of the airplane just missing and the wind is just extremely loud. There's wind blowing everywhere, but everyone was in their seats."

China's aviation regulator is conducting an emergency meeting to consider a response to the incident, including a possible grounding of the Boeing Max fleet in the country. The aircraft variant involved in the Alaska Air incident isn't flown by Chinese carriers.

The National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing are also investigating the matter. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency said it's checking if it will need to mandate anything.

The 737 Max has modular fuselage layouts, allowing for emergency doors to be installed more variably depending on the number of seats. This gives operators greater flexibility with the cabin configuration.

The temporary grounding, which will impact tens of thousands of customers with canceled flights, involves almost 30% of the Alaska Air's 227 Boeing 737 family aircraft. Alaska Air is the second-biggest operator of the 737 Max 9 variant, behind United Airlines Holdings Inc.

Inspections are expected to be completed in the next few days. The jet didn't appear to have suffered the type of powerful decompression that occurred on a Southwest Airlines Co. plane in 2018, when part of an exploding engine shattered a window of the Boeing 737-700, partly sucking a woman seated next to it from the plane and killing her.

"While this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation," the carrier said. Alaska Air operates an all-Boeing fleet.