The spectacular images made the rounds on social networks: a plane window blown out and oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling of the aircraft. It had all the makings of a disaster movie’s opening scene. But no: it was Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. With 177 people on board, the Boeing had to make an emergency landing on Friday, January 5, in Oregon in the United States (Northwest), passengers reporting that a window panel had flown away after takeoff. A door of the aircraft opened and detached from the cabin in mid-flight, at nearly 5,000 m altitude.
After turning around, the plane returned to land in Portland. Results of the incident: only a few minor injuries. According to the NTSB (the National Transportation Safety Board), no passengers were in the two seats immediately next to the partition that flew off. Whether or not Boeing is responsible has not been defined, but the episode raises new questions for the manufacturer. While the company led by David Calhoun was just starting to regain its footing, what happened with this Boeing 737 MAX 9 which was almost new?
Inspection of the aircraft continues. Turkish Airlines, Aeromexico and the Panamanian company Copa Airlines have grounded their aircraft of this type to inspect them, following a directive from the American federal civil aviation agency (Federal Aviation Administration, FAA). Just like United, which has the largest fleet of 737-9s in the world. Alaska, which had neutralized all of its 65 planes of this model even before the FAA’s announcement, specified on Saturday on X (formerly Twitter) that “more than a quarter” of its fleet of 737 MAX-9s had been inspected and said he had not found “any element of concern” at this stage. Alaska Airlines canceled 160 flights – affecting around 23,000 customers – on Saturday afternoon, and more cancellations could be expected this Sunday, says the American media CNN.
“A terrifying incident”
“A terrifying incident”, judged on X the American Secretary of Transport, Pete Buttigieg. “We are very, very fortunate that this did not end in a more tragic way,” NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy told reporters. “We have the safest (civilian) air network in the world,” she assured. “We are a world standard […]but we must preserve this standard.” The official revealed that, according to initial analyzes, the gate had fallen above Cedar Hills, in the inner suburbs of Portland, and called on residents of the area to come forward if the one of them found it.
Since 2017, this Boeing model, supposed to be a revolution in the world of aeronautics, has had one series of disappointments. The Alaska Airlines incident comes after a series of technical problems and two crashes in recent years for the 737 MAX. On October 29, 2018, 189 people died off the coast of Indonesia on board a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max. Indonesian investigators concluded that there was a design defect, inadequate pilot training and poor crew performance. What was particularly singled out: the automatic system, which was supposed to prevent the plane from diving.
A black streak for Boeing
Barely five months later, on March 10, 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines 737-800 MAX crashed, this time, a few minutes after takeoff. On board, 149 victims, including nine French, and eight crew members. The plane was flying from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Kenya. The preliminary investigation report highlighted the responsibility of the Boeing’s anti-stall system, although it was activated. Consequences of the two crashes: the 737 MAX was grounded for twenty months and banned from flying in Chinese, European, Indian, Canadian and American airspace. At the start of 2020, the 737 MAX is once again authorized to fly over European skies, as well as in the United States, Brazil and Canada.
In March 2020, the preliminary report of the Transportation Committee of the American Congress on the Boeing 737 MAX, published on March 6, drops a bombshell, which has gone unnoticed because of the pandemic. The conclusions of the 600,000 pages can however be compared to a scandal for the aircraft manufacturer. For cost reasons, the Boeing is the only aircraft that does not have a device allowing pilots to prioritize alerts when they all arrive at the same time. Still in the interest of saving money, we learned that Boeing reduced various simulator tests by several thousand hours in 2012, remind our colleagues at World. Design errors would also have been concealed.
A bolt problem last December
In January 2023, the American aircraft manufacturer was forced to go through the certification process again for the two largest versions of its medium-haul 737 MAX. “We are seeing increased stability and quality within our own factories, but we are working to bring the supply chain up to the same standards,” Dave Calhoun said in October 2023, during a press conference. Last December, Boeing urged airlines to inspect the more than 1,300 delivered Max planes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder control system.
In recent months, however, the company has experienced a real boom, with its shares increasing by 30%. She seemed to be putting the difficulties of the past behind her, because the crisis had forced her to account. In 2019, CEO Dennis Muilenburg resigned and the company agreed to a $2.5 billion settlement with the Department of Justice, recalls the Wall Street Journal. The manufacturer, as part of the settlement, had admitted that its employees misled aviation regulators about safety issues related to the crashes. “The problem is what’s happening at Boeing,” summarizes John Goglia, a longtime aviation safety expert, in the New York Times. The cursed plane has never lived up to its name so well.