Feds investigate in-flight blowout of door on Alaska Airlines plane

A Portland resident on Sunday found in his backyard the missing door plug that blew off the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane. The part detached from an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff on Friday, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The blowout ripped a refrigerator-sized hole in the fuselage and forced the pilots to return to Portland. None of the 171 passengers and six crew members were seriously injured, although some did have minor injuries. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the temporary grounding of all Boeing planes of the same model operating in the United States until they can be inspected.

Has this plane been involved in any other incidents? Another version of the Boeing 737, the Max 8, was involved in fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed a total of 346 people. Those crashes resulted in a nearly two-year grounding of the jet and substantial changes to the plane’s software. Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems reportedly made the fuselage part on the Max 9 that blew out. Boeing says it will support the investigation and comply with FAA inspections.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Kyle Ziemnick’s report on Boeing’s response to issues with its 737 Max jets.