Posted on 01/06/24
| News Source: ABC News
The Federal Aviation Administration is temporarily grounding certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft following a report of an "in-flight departure of a mid-cabin door plug" on an Alaska Airlines flight Friday.
The Alaska Airlines flight returned to Portland, Oregon, soon after takeoff after it "experienced an incident," prompting the airline to temporarily ground its Boeing 737-9 fleet, the airline said Friday.
Six crew members and 171 passengers were on board Flight 1282 bound for Ontario, California, the airline said.
The cabin became depressurized shortly after takeoff and the pilots asked for an emergency landing, according to the transcript of an air traffic control call from LiveATC.net. A photo posted on social media appeared to show a hole in the fuselage next to a passenger seat.
"The safety of our guests and employees is always our primary priority," Alaska said in a statement, "so while this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation."
CEO Ben Minicucci called the grounding "precautionary," saying in a statement the 65 planes will return to service "only after completion of full maintenance and safety inspections."
"We are working with Boeing and regulators to understand what occurred tonight, and will share updates as more information is available," Minicucci said.