Alaska Airlines 737-9 MAX exit door separates in flight

[MarkR]

The rear mid-cabin exit door assembly separated from an Alaska Airlines 737-9 MAX minutes after take off from Portland on 5 January. The aircraft, registration N704AL, departed Portland (PDX) bound for Ontario, CA (ONT) at 17:06 local time (01:06 UTC +1). The aircraft reached a maximum altitude of 16,325 feet AMSL. It diverted safely back to Portland, landing at 17:26, reaching the gate at 17:30. The flight was carrying 171 passengers and six crew.

https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/a...tes-in-flight/

[Greg Hyde]

US regulator investigates, grounds all Boeing 737-9 Max jetliners after Alaska Airlines blowout

US officials have ordered the immediate grounding of Boeing 737-9 Max jetliners after an Alaska Airlines plane suffered a blowout that left a gaping hole in the side of the fuselage.

Mandatory inspections will take about four to eight hours per aircraft and will affect about 171 airplanes worldwide.
Major US airline, United Airlines, said it will also temporarily suspend flights on about nine aircraft of the same model, leading to 60 cancellations on Saturday.

An Alaska Airlines jetliner blew out a window and a portion of its fuselage shortly after take-off almost five kilometres above Oregon late on Friday.
The incident created a gaping hole and forced pilots to make an emergency landing as its 174 passengers and six crew members donned oxygen masks.

No-one was seriously hurt as the depressurised plane returned safely to Portland International Airport about 20 minutes after it had departed.
The airline has since grounded its 65 Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft until they could be inspected.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-...lines-blowout/

[Philip Argy]

Ordinarily these things are designed so that air pressure holds them in place - even looking at the photos it is hard to figure out what has occurred but one plausible scenario is that the panel folded in on itself to be able to fit through the aperture. Obviously Boeing, NTSB etc are going to study this very carefully and it's why the FAA has grounded all Max-9s in case it's a latent design or material defect.

[Greg Hyde]

Door panel which flew off Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet missing four key bolts, NTSB report finds

A door panel that flew off a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet mid-flight appeared to be missing four key bolts, according to an initial report by a US safety board investigating the incident.

Photo evidence released Tuesday shows bolts were missing from the door plug, which had been removed to fix rivets which were damaged in the production process, according to the independent US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report.

Until now, the NTSB had not said what caused the panel to rip off an Alaska Airlines-operated jet as the plane climbed to 16,000 feet on January 5.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-...olts/103435288

To quote Jamie Hyneman from the "Mythbusters" - "There's your problem"

[Philip Argy]

It is staggering news if true and a sad indictment of how poor Boeing's QA systems must be, not to mention the issue of designing a plug that needs to be held in by bolts instead of being held in by air pressure.

[Greg Hyde]

Originally Posted by Philip Argy

It is staggering news if true and a sad indictment of how poor Boeing's QA systems must be, not to mention the issue of designing a plug that needs to be held in by bolts instead of being held in by air pressure.

True, Phil , cited by several news organisations.

Also, this mornings news:

Boeing Finds More Problems With 737 Max, Risking Delivery Delays

The plane manufacturer said incorrectly drilled holes were found in the fuselage of about 50 undelivered planes.

[Greg Hyde]

Boeing ousts 737 MAX chief in shake-up as blowout fallout mounts

Boeing has ousted the leader of the 737 MAX program at its Renton plant and reshuffled its leadership team at the Commercial Airplanes division, effective immediately.

The moves come more than a month after a Renton-assembled MAX 9 saw a fuselage panel blow out of an Alaska Airlines flight departing Portland. Investigators contend key bolts were missing from the plane prior to the Jan. 5 blowout, a failure that has increased scrutiny of quality control at Boeing and its suppliers and put intense pressure on company leadership.

Ed Clark, vice president of the MAX program and general manager at the Renton facility, will leave the company. He’s being replaced by Katie Ringgold, the current vice president 737 delivery operations.

The changes were announced Wednesday morning in an email to employees by Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief Stan Deal.

https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...adership-team/

The deck-chairs on the Titanic have been reshuffled again !

[Brian Wilkes]

Don't know if this will change anything or not, I think you have to look at workers and their workmanship and personal first.

[Greg Hyde]

There was a very good documentary on the "culture" of Boeing a while back.

It started to change from an "engineering" focused organisation about the time that Douglas was taken over.

The bottom-line (profit) became the driver.