Alaska Airlines does not fly on the Boeing Max 9

The Aircraft-Type Crisis that Killed Boeing in 2018 and 2019: Aircraft Type Ill-Fated Flights That Cannot Be Found at the Alaska Airlines Site

The plane involved was Boeing’s model 9 737 Max—an aircraft a generation on from the model 8s involved in the 2018 and 2019 Boeing crashes that killed 346 people, and which led to nearly 400 Boeing 737 Max 8s being grounded in early 2019 for over 18 months.

Keyes said once the FAA clears the planes to fly — “and assuming no other incidents” — the public’s memory will fade. Within six months, most people will not notice the aircraft type when booking a flight, he predicted.

Kayak said that after the Alaska flight incident it saw a three-fold jump in the number of people looking for the sort of aircraft that they were looking for. The jump — from low numbers, a Kayak spokeswoman acknowledged — led the site to make its airplane-type filter easier to find.

“We will see our way through to that, but we need to know that we are starting from a very anxious moment for our customers,” he told the Boeing employees.

“Moments like this shake the airlines to the ground, just like it shook me to the bone,” he said, adding that Boeing must assure them that the planes are safe.

Reporters were not allowed to attend the event but a four-minute video was released that showed how worried Boeing’s airline customers are about the crisis.

The door plugs are installed by Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, but investigators have not said which company’s employees last worked on the plug on the ill-fated Alaska plane.

The Alaska Airlines Door Plug Anomaly and its Implication for the FAA’s Rules on Plane Retrieval, as reported by Leeham News

The FAA promised in the past to let safety determine when the planes fly again and Boeing said it was updating inspection procedures based on that. Neither would say how long that might take.

The order to revise the guidelines came after Alaska and United reported finding loose bolts and other problems in the panel doors of an unspecified number of other Max 9s that they had begun to inspect.

Bjorn Fehrm, an analyst at the aviation industry publication Leeham News, agrees that the apparent overlooking of the tightening of these bolts is significant. He says that it’s a big issue. However, as far as the Alaska Airlines incident is concerned, he believes that if the screws had not been fully tightened, it would have been “inconsequential.” These bolts aren’t designed to hold in a door plug, he says.

Alaska Airlines is canceling through Saturday all flights on Boeing 737 Max 9 planes like the one that suffered an in-flight blowout of a fuselage panel last week as it waits for new instructions from Boeing and federal officials on how to inspect the fleet.

“We hope this action provides guests with a little more certainty, and we are working around the clock to reaccommodate impacted guests on other flights,” the airline said on its website.

On January 6, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded approximately 171 of the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft operating worldwide, requiring immediate and enhanced safety inspections. All components and bolts for the door plugs on the Alaska Airlines plane were checked. On January 9 the FAA said all 737 Maxes with door plugs would remain grounded until the FAA decreed they were safe to return to flight. (Boeing has delivered 214 737 Max 9 jets in total worldwide, but 43 are not under the FAA’s jurisdiction.)

Robert Mann Jr., an independent aviation analyst, wonders if the latest issues with the model 9 are instead related to the supplier or the plane’s manufacturing. He believes the bolt anomalies depicted in the photo, which was shared on X by an editor at Airline Weekly, are unacceptable. I would be angry and wonder what else was there when I found that on my car.

When contacted by WIRED, Boeing spokesperson Jim Proulx declined to comment on this, citing an ongoing investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). “Safety is our top priority, and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers,” Boeing said in a January 6 statement.

Subsequent reports show door plug problems on other model 9s. A photograph shared on social media purportedly showed one of United Airlines’ model 9 fleet with screws that weren’t fully screwed into place on door plugs.

The third Boeing 737 Max has a major issue in the last few years. Flying at 16,000 feet shortly after taking off in Oregon on January 5, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was still climbing when part of the plane’s body detached, leaving passengers looking out at clear air. The incident raises serious concerns about the viability of this type of plane and the industry’s method of assuring aircraft safety.