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The mystery of how the door plug could fall from flight 1282 is approaching an answer.
It has now been found in a garden and revealed new clues to the investigation.
– We don’t know if there were any bolts in it, says Jennifer Homedy at the NTSB.
Last week, an Alaska Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing after a door plug came loose and fell. The accident occurred at an altitude of 5,000 meters shortly after the plane took off from the airport in Portland. Cabin pressure dropped and objects and parts of seats were sucked into the air. The plane was able to land without injury.
Since then, the aircraft model, a Boeing 737 Max 9, has been grounded by both the US and European aviation authorities. It is the US Transportation Safety Board that mainly investigates the accident and how it could have happened.
No bolts were found on the door plug
On Monday, the door plug was found on the ground in Portland. It will be a crucial piece of the puzzle to provide answers as to how it could come loose in the middle of the flight. Technicians have now begun to examine it and there are question marks around several components, reports CNN.
– We don’t know if there were any bolts in it, or if they were just missing and disappeared when the door plug came loose, Jennifer Homendy, president of the US Transportation Safety Board, said at the press conference.
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full screen Picture from inside the plane where the door plug has been sucked out. Photo: Kelly Bartlett/AP
At the same time, inspections of all planes of the Boeing 737 Max–9 model are underway.
On Monday, American United Airlines announced that it had begun inspecting its planes and had found deviations. The technicians then discovered that several of the bolts attached to the door plug were loose.
“Since we began the inspections on Saturday, we have found cases that appear to be related to installation problems in the door plug, such as bolts that needed to be tightened even more,” the company said in a statement according to CNN.
The part that was torn off was a so-called door plug, which is not the same thing as a door.
– I want to clarify the correct name, which is plug. It is not a door because it cannot be used and opened. You can call it a door plug, a plug – but it’s not a door, Jennifer Homendy has previously said.
In Boeing planes of the model 737 Max 9, the plane is partly built differently depending on how many passengers the customer wants to fit on the plane, writes the Los Angeles Times.
The crisis situation for Boeing has caused the company to collapse on the New York stock exchange. On Monday, it fell eight percent, which is the biggest decline since autumn 2022.
Bob found the door plug: “Oh my God”
Authorities immediately began searching for the missing door plug after the accident and called in an area where it was believed to have landed. Residents in the Portland suburb of Cedar Hills were asked to help in the hunt, reports say Reuters.
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full screenBob Sauer found the door plug in his garden. Photo: Claire Rush/AP
That prompted teacher Bob Sauer to take out his flashlight and head out into the dark garden.
And there it was on the lawn.
– There was something white looming under the trees at the back, something that is not usually there, he tells Reuters.
Bob quickly realized where he had found himself.
– My heart started beating pretty fast because I thought “Oh my God, people have been looking for this all weekend and it turns out it’s in my garden,” he says.
Bob then called the US Transportation Safety Board. The door plug has been sent to the agency’s laboratory in Washington.