An Alaska Airlines plane made an emergency landing shortly after taking off from Portland, Oregon, following the detachment of a window and a piece of the aircraft wall, as documented by the photos posted on social media. The Boeing 737 MAX 9, which was headed to California with 174 passengers and six crew members, returned to the Portland airport at 5.26pm local time. The Federal Aviation Administration has opened an investigation.
Meanwhile the American airline has grounded all 65 of its Boeing 737-9 planes. “Following what happened on Flight 1282 we decided as a precautionary measure to keep our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft on the ground,” said Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci. “Each aircraft will be returned to service only after all our safety and maintenance inspections have been completed,” added Minicucci, explaining that the checks will last a few days.
The crew of Flight 1282 reported responding to an alarm reporting a cabin pressurization problem by releasing oxygen masks for passengers. Photos published on X by the US civil aviation authority, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) show that one of the windows was missing after flying away. Kyle Rinker, one of the passengers on the flight said that shortly after takeoff from Portland the window was blown out with a ‘pop’. “But it was all sudden and we didn’t realize what had happened until the masks came off,” Riker said.