Alaska Airlines mid-air Boeing blowout: What next for flights and 737 aircraft, according to experts
Dramatic footage shows the moments after a window and chunk of fuselage blew out of a passenger plane in mid-air, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the Boeing 737-9 MAX.
One Alaska Airlines passenger on the affected flight said a boy and his mother were sitting in the same row as the damage and the boy’s shirt was torn off him and sucked out of the plane.
While only minor injuries were reported, the situation could have been “very dangerous,” according to David Learmount, consulting editor at Flightglobal. “If there were people near it who were not wearing the seatbelts they would have disappeared,” he told Sky News.
Alaska Airlines grounded all of its Boeing 737-9 MAX planes in response to the incident, which caused the cabin to depressurise and resulted in the plane making an emergency landing in the US state of Oregon.
The Federal Aviation Administration later said it would order the temporary grounding of some Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft operated by some US airlines or in US territory.
Boeing said it “fully supports” the administration’s decision to require inspections of 737-9 MAX planes “with the
same configuration” as the aircraft that was forced to land.
It is the latest issue for Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, after its 737 MAX aircraft were grounded for a year and a half following two crashes in 2018 and 2019.
A gaping hole could be seen in the side of the aircraft. Pic: Kyle Rinker
Could the Boeing 737 MAX be grounded again?
Aviation experts said the incident involving the Alaska Airlines 737-9 MAX is “extremely unlikely” to lead to all planes of the same type being grounded.
“The issue with grounding aeroplanes is not the problem, the issue is ungrounding them,” Tim Atkinson, a pilot and aviation consultant, told Sky News. “Once you ground an aeroplane how you unground it is the really difficult piece. For that reason, groundings are vanishingly rare and they are always for something way more significant than this.”
He added: “Aviation safety works by statistics, what I call rolling the sky dice. So far nobody has been killed, remember it took the second MAX crash before the planes were grounded [in 2019].”
Exterior photos suggest the rear mid-cabin exit door came off during the flight. Pic: KGW
The MAX, the latest version of Boeing’s 737, is a twin-engine single-aisle plane which went into service in May 2017.
Mr Learmount said airlines running the planes would likely react by launching inspections of their fleets.
“The MAX is getting a bit of a caning. Just when you thought everything is fine,” he said. “If I was in charge of an airline with any MAXs in it I would be inspecting the area where this happened.”
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have announced they will investigate the event, while the British Civil Aviation Authority is monitoring the situation.
The FAA announced the temporary grounding of some 737-9 MAX planes on Saturday afternoon.
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Mr Learmount said Alaska Airlines and Boeing would be looking to find out “exactly what the problem was”, adding: “Is this a design or a manufacturing fault or has the aircraft suffered damage which has shown itself later?”
He said he doubted the incident would dent passenger confidence in Boeing 737 MAX planes, but added: “There may be some nervous fliers who will shy away from flying on MAXs.”
Mr Atkinson said it is unlikely the issue with the Alaska Airlines flight could have been catastrophic for an entire aircraft – but that it could still have been deadly.
He said: “This is the kind of thing that might cause at worse one or two fatalities from people being sucked out of the aeroplane. It’s never going to be worse than that.”
He added the board of Alaska Airlines may be “kicking themselves all the way down the yard” for grounding its fleet.
“I think largely this is about a minor technical problem on a plane and a significant overreaction,” he said.
After the Alaska Airlines incident, a Boeing spokesperson said: “We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer.
“A Boeing technical team stands ready to support the investigation.”
Why were Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft grounded in 2019?
All of Boeing’s MAX passenger jets were grounded in March 2019 for 20 months after two crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia which killed 346 people between them.
Both disasters were caused by an automated flight-control system that pushed the aircraft’s nose down based on faulty sensor readings, with the pilots unable to regain control.
Wreckage from the Ethiopia Airlines crash in 2019. Pic: AP
After its planes were grounded Boeing worked on software upgrades and new safety precautions to the flight control system linked to both crashes and the jets returned to service in December 2020.
The company also implemented flight control updates, maintenance work, fresh pilot training and meetings with flight crews to explain its changes and address concerns.
Mr Learmount said Boeing “worked very hard” to fix problems with the 737 MAX.
The company “went back to square one”, he said, adding: “The MAX has made them completely start again from the ground up with their whole philosophy about what it is to be a world-class designer and manufacturer of aeroplanes.”
Wreckage from the Lion Air crash in Indonesia in 2018. Pic: AP
What other problems have there been with the Boeing 737 MAX?
Boeing has had to work to fix other manufacturing flaws with its 737 MAXs which have interrupted deliveries of the planes.
Last year the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told pilots flying the MAX 8 and MAX 9 to limit the use of an anti-ice system in dry conditions over concerns inlets around the engine could overheat and break away, possibly striking the plane and causing rapid decompression.
An engine fan blade broke off an older 737 during a Southwest Airlines flight in 2018, striking and shattering a window, and killing a woman.
Last month Boeing told airlines to inspect the planes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder-control system.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
The Israeli Air Force is regarded as one of the country’s most elite units.
So, when hundreds of current and former pilots call for an end to the war in Gaza to get the hostages out, Israelis take notice.
This month, 1,200 pilots caused a storm by signing an open letter arguing the war served mainly “political and personal interests and not security ones”.
The pilots’ protest letter
Part of the letter translated
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the original letter was written by “bad apples”.
But Guy Paron, a former pilot and one of those behind the letter, said the Israeli government had failed to move to phase two of the ceasefire deal with Hamas, brokered under US President Donald Trump.
That deal called for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of all the remaining hostages. Mr Netanyahu continues to argue that the war must continue to put pressure on Hamas.
Mr Paron said the (Israeli) government “gave up or violated a signed agreement with Hamas” and “threw it to the trash”.
“You have to finish the deal, release the hostages, even if it means stopping that war,” he argued.
It’s not the first time Israeli pilots have taken up a cause. Many of them also campaigned against Mr Netanyahu’s 2023 judicial reforms.
“In this country, 1,000 Israeli Air Force pilots carry a lot of weight,” Mr Paron added.
“The Air Force historically has been the major force and game-changer in all of Israel’s wars, including this current one. The strength of the Air Force is the public’s guarantee of security.”
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UN runs out of food aid in Gaza
Anti-government campaign spreads
Now, the open letter campaign has spread to other parts of the military.
More than 15,000 people have signed, including paratroopers, armoured corps, navy, special units, cyber and medics. The list goes on.
Dr Ofer Havakuk has served 200 days during this war as a combat doctor, mostly in Gaza, and believes the government is continuing the war to stay in power.
He has also signed an open letter supporting the pilots and accused the prime minister of putting politics first.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the authors of the original letter as ‘bad apples’. Pic: AP
He said Mr Netanyahu “wants to keep his coalition working and to keep the coalition together. For him, this is the main purpose of the war”.
A ceasefire could lead to the collapse of the prime minister’s fragile far-right coalition, which is opposed to ending the war.
Threat of dismissal
The Israeli military has threatened to dismiss those who have signed protest letters.
We met a former pilot who is still an active reservist. He didn’t want to be identified and is worried he could lose his job.
“This is a price that I’m willing to pay, although it is very big for me because I’m volunteering and, as a volunteer, I want to stay on duty for as long as I can,” he told us.
The controversy over the war and the hostages is gaining momentum inside Israel’s military.
Read more:
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It is also exposing deep divisions in society at a time when there is no clear sign about how the government plans to end the war in Gaza, or when.
The renewed war in Gaza over the last year and a half followed deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw around 250 taken hostage.
More than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the Israeli military’s response, many of them civilians, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
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