Europe 1 with AFP 08:32, 08 January 2024

An Alaska Airlines plane from Portland, Oregon, lost a window in flight and had to make an emergency landing on Friday. Since then, all Boeing 737 MAX 9s in the world have been grounded for inspection.

Boeing 737 MAX 9 inspection groundings spiked around the world on Sunday, leading to dozens of flight cancellations, after an incident on an Alaska Airlines plane that lost a door after takeoff.

171 devices affected worldwide

Following the example of American airlines such as United Airlines, one of the world's firsts, Turkish Airlines, Aeromexico and the Panamanian company Copa Airlines have grounded their aircraft of this type to inspect them, following a directive from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). According to data provided by Boeing to AFP, some 218 of the 737 MAX 9 have been delivered so far.

The FAA on Saturday ordered "the immediate inspection of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft" before a new flight, saying about 171 aircraft were affected worldwide. The operation is estimated to take between four and eight hours by plane.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has indicated that no operator in Europe is using the 737 MAX 9 with the relevant technical options. Singapore Airlines (SIA) said it did not use aircraft of the type to be checked and was therefore "not affected" by the measure. Boeing's chief executive has invited his employees to a safety meeting to be held Tuesday at the company's plant in northwestern Washington state, Boeing said late Sunday.

A door of the aircraft detached from the cabin in mid-flight

The incident occurred at around 18:30 p.m. (02 GMT Saturday) on Friday, shortly after an Alaska Airlines flight took off from Portland International Airport in Oregon. According to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), a door opened and detached from the cabin in mid-flight. The aircraft, which was carrying 30 passengers and 171 crew members, was at an altitude of almost 6,5 m.

It is a locked door and hidden by a bulkhead that reveals only a porthole, according to the NTSB, a configuration offered by Boeing to customers who request it. The FAA's directive also applies to models "with the middle door blocked," according to the document published on its website. After turning around, the aircraft returned to Portland, with only a few minor injuries.

No one was seated in the two seats next to the bulkhead that flew off

The NTSB said it had dispatched a team to Portland to investigate the reasons for the malfunction. United, which has the world's largest fleet of 737-9s, told AFP it was grounding 46 planes, 33 of which had already been examined. Alaska, which had neutralized all of its 65 planes of this model even before the FAA's announcement, said Saturday on X (ex-Twitter) that "more than a quarter" of its fleet of 737 MAX-9s had been inspected and said it had not found "anything of concern" at this stage.

Copa Airlines has suspended the operation of its 21 aircraft of this model and Turkish Airlines has suspended the operation of its five aircraft for verification. "It was really brutal. As soon as I reached altitude, the front of the window came off," Kyle Rinker, a passenger on the flight, told CNN. According to the NTSB, no one was seated in the two seats next to the bulkhead that flew off.

But according to passengers quoted by the Portland newspaper, The Oregonian, a teenager sitting in that row had his shirt torn off by the decompression, causing minor injuries.

'Terrifying incident'

"A terrifying incident," U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on X. "We're very, very fortunate that this didn't end more tragically," NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters.

The official revealed that, according to initial analysis, the gate had fallen over Cedar Hills, in the near suburbs of Portland, and called on residents of the area to come forward if they found it. The offending aircraft was certified in November, according to the FAA's online log. "We support its (the FAA's) decision to request an immediate inspection of 737-9s of the same configuration as the offending aircraft," Boeing said in a statement sent to AFP.

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A series of technical problems for the 737 MAX

The incident comes after a series of technical problems and two crashes in recent years for the 737 MAX. The two crashes, which killed 346 people in October 2018 and March 2019, resulted in the 737 MAX being grounded for 20 months and imposing changes to the flight control system.

More recently, Boeing has had to slow down deliveries because of problems with the fuselage, particularly with the aircraft's aft watertight bulkhead. By the end of December, Boeing had delivered a total of more than 1,370 737 MAX aircraft and its order book stood at more than 4,000 units.