Auto & Transportation

Boeing 737 MAX9 operated by Alaska Airlines Resuming Flight Following Mid-Air Door Blowout

By - 27 Jan 2024 06:12 PM

Three weeks following a mid-flight panel blowout and emergency landing that prompted extensive inspections of the aircraft, Alaska Airlines progressively resumed flights with its Boeing 737 MAX 9 fleet on Friday, the company said.

Flight 1146 was the first flight, departing Seattle for San Diego at 2:20 pm and arriving in California at 6:14 pm, ninety minutes later.

The flight comes after the Federal Aviation Administration declared on Wednesday that the MAX 9 would be cleared to resume service through a maintenance and inspection program.Alaska Airlines stated that it anticipates having all 65 of its MAX 9 aircraft inspected by the end of next week, enabling it to resume its regular schedule.

"Each of our 737-9 MAX will return to service only after the rigorous inspections are completed and each plane is deemed airworthy according to FAA requirements," the business stated.

"The individual inspections are expected to take up to 12 hours per aircraft."

The FAA grounded 171 MAX 9 planes with a similar configuration to the one in the January 5 incident, in which a door plug blew out mid-flight.Inspectors have stated that although there were no major injuries in the incident, it could have been disastrous.

In January, 3,000 Alaska Airlines flights were canceled as a result of the grounding. The company stated on Thursday that it anticipates the grounding to cost it $150 million.

The first flight of one of United Airlines' aircraft is scheduled for Sunday; however, the airline did not rule out an earlier return to service. United Airlines possesses the largest fleet of Boeing models affected by the grounding order. This information was released on Thursday. One of the investigators from the US Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is in charge of investigating the events leading up to the January 5 incident, informed AFP on Friday that the investigator was scheduled to return to Boeing's Renton plant in Washington state that day.

According to the agency, the investigative team will create a timeline starting with the production phases and ending with the in-flight mishap.