Teacher finds missing door plug from Alaska Airlines flight that had mid-air blowout in his garden
The missing door plug that was torn off from an Alaska Airlines flight while in the air has been found by a school teacher – named only as Bob – in his garden.
Pilots were forced to perform an emergency landing on Friday after a hole was ripped into the side of the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane flying 171 passengers from Portland in Oregon, to Ontario in California.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says the door plug – where the hole was made – has now been recovered by a school teacher from Cedar Hills in Portland.
The part is a “key missing component”, according to NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy, in determining why the accident occurred.
Read more on this story:
Passenger says ordeal was ‘jarring and disorienting’
The incident happened after pilots reported pressurisation warning lights on three earlier flights of the same jet model – one in December and two in January.
There were also four unaccompanied minors on the flight, Ms Homendy said, with “heroic” flight attendants ensuring they had their oxygen masks on.
She also described a harrowing picture of the incident, with the 27kg panel blowing off the side of the aircraft and causing rapid depressurisation inside the plane, which had not reached cruising altitude.
The force of the decompression led to the cockpit door being blown open while the flight crew could not communicate with the pilots.
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‘We are very, very fortunate’
“They heard a bang,” Ms Homendy said of the flight crew, adding a quick-reference laminated checklist was sucked out of the hole, while the first officer lost her headset.
“Communication was a serious issue… it was described as chaos.”
Missing voice recorder data
To compound communication issues, the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) had no data as it was not retrieved within two hours, when recording restarts and previous data is erased.
“It’s a very chaotic event, the circuit breaker for the CVR was not pulled, the maintenance team went out to get it, but it was right at about the two-hour mark,” Ms Homendy said.
“If that communication is not recorded, that is unfortunately a loss for us… that information is key not just for our investigation but for improving aviation safety.”
A gaping hole could be seen in the side of the aircraft. Pic: Kyle Rinker
In response to the mid-air incident, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes to run inspections, which has caused cancellations to pile up for passengers.
Alaska Airlines said it cancelled 170 flights on Sunday and a further 60 on Monday, with more expected this week and other airlines also affected.
Three previous warnings
Alaska Airlines pilots had reported pressurisation warning lights on 7 December last year and on 3 and 4 January.
Ms Homendy said it was not clear if there is any connection between those incidents and the rapid depressurisation incident on Friday.
After those warnings, the airline had nonetheless chosen to restrict the aircraft from making long flights over water to Hawaii in case it needed to turn back to an airport, she added.
Read more:
What next for flights and 737 aircraft, according to experts
Responding to the reports on the warning lights, Alaska Airlines said aircraft pressurisation system write-ups are typical in commercial aviation operations with large planes.
“In every case, the write up was fully evaluated and resolved per approved maintenance procedures and in full compliance with all applicable FAA regulations,” the airline said.
Ms Homendy had previously said it was “very lucky” the accident wasn’t far worse.
She revealed no one was sat in the seats immediately next to the affected fuselage – and because the plane had not reached cruising altitude, passengers and crew were not moving around the cabin.
No one was injured, and the plane landed safely back in Portland.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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