Hundreds of flights canceled after door flies off mid-air Alaska Airlines flight
Hundreds of flights canceled after Alaska Airlines incident
Alaska Airlines and United Airlines canceled hundreds of flights across the country, after a door flew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 while it was mid-flight.
SEATAC, Wash. - Alaska Airlines and United Airlines canceled hundreds of flights across the country, after a door flew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 while it was mid-flight.
Since Friday’s incident, which endangered the more than 170 people on board, inspections have found other Max 9’s with loose door bolts.
How these planes passed inspection and maintenance checks, and how long airlines may have been aware of these issues, is now the focus of the ongoing FAA investigation.
Alaska Airlines took more than 60 Max 9's out of service for safety inspections.
The only other airline that flies this model is United, and this afternoon it announced loose door bolts were found on an unspecified number of its Max 9's.
On Monday, the National Transportation Safety Board said they found the door that flew off Alaska Airlines flight 1282.
Since the incident, passengers have faced nightmares at airports across the country.
"First, they canceled our flight. We didn’t know where or when we were going to go. Then they sent us, they were taking us to Portland, then Burbank today. Then they changed that, canceled that," said Nancy Terry, who was trying to fly home from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport with her husband.
On Monday alone, Alaska Airlines canceled at least 140 flights nationwide and United Airlines canceled about 200 flights nationwide.
With the planes grounded, airlines are forced to scramble and there is no timeline for when this will be resolved.
"Do not rush this. We want those airplanes flying. We will not fly an unsafe airplane. As captain, that is my moral and professional obligation, but do not rush your review," said Dennis Tajer, a captain for American Airlines. He flies Boeing 737 Max airplanes.
He is also the spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, the union for American Airlines pilots.
While the investigation for the actual cause of Friday’s incident is still ongoing, Tajer says he is losing faith in Boeing.
RELATED: Alaska Airlines door plug blow out: What’s known about the Boeing emergency
"We had the 737 Max, a couple years ago, two of them went down, 346 lives lost. We see Boeing in the news consistently either with design features that are not working properly, or production issues," he said.
Boeing still hasn’t fixed this problem on Max jets, so it’s asking for an exemption to safety rules
Boeing is asking federal regulators to exempt a new model of its 737 Max airliner from a safety standard designed to prevent part of the engine housing from overheating and breaking off during flight.
In 2018 and 2019, two separate deadly crashes created a fallout of issues for Boeing.
Tajer recently spoke out on Boeing's request for safety exemptions for their current 737 models that have de-icer issues which can cause loss of plane control.
Boeing provided FOX 13 News with a statement that reads:
"The safety of our airplanes and everyone who steps onboard is a core Boeing value.
We commend the pilots and cabin crew of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 for their actions to safely land the plane and we are grateful the airline shared that all passengers have been medically cleared.
Our Air Safety Investigation team is in Portland, Oregon to support the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the accident in which a door plug departed a 737-9. We are working closely with 737-9 MAX customers and providing the technical assistance they may need, while staying in contact with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as we move forward.
We agree with and fully support the FAA’s decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 MAX airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane. The assembly to be inspected is not found on other members of the 737 MAX family.
Our teams have been working diligently – with thorough FAA review – to provide comprehensive, technical instructions to operators for the required inspections. This morning, our team issued the instructions via a multi-operator message."
Officials with Boeing said they are holding a company-wide safety meeting on Tuesday at its Renton facility.
FOX 13 News reached out to United Airlines, who provided this statement:
"Service on United’s Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft remains temporarily suspended while it conducts inspections required by the FAA. We’re continuing to work with the FAA to clarify the inspection process and requirements for returning all MAX 9 aircraft to service. We are working with customers to re-accommodate them on other flights and in some cases have been able to avoid cancelations by switching to other aircraft types."
We also reached out to Alaska Airlines who provided this statement:
"As we await further information from the FAA and work through these important steps, our technicians have prepared each aircraft to be immediately ready for the required inspection when instructions are finalized.
We recognize that additional questions remain about the details surrounding Flight 1282 that we are unable to address at this time. Because this is an active investigation, we must receive permission from the NTSB to provide information about the aircraft and its prior maintenance. We will provide information as soon as the NTSB permits us to do so.
As these steps remain pending, we continue to experience disruption to our operation with these aircraft out of service. As of 8:30 a.m. Pacific, we have cancelled roughly 140 flights for Monday due to the 737-9 MAX grounding."
FOX 13 will have updates on the situation as it unfolds.