Alaska Airlines grounds Boeing 737 Max 9 fleet after midair window blowout
Al Jazeera
All 174 passengers and six crew are safe after incident shortly after takeoff from Portland forced emergency landing.
Alaska Airlines has said it is grounding its fleet of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft after a window and piece of fuselage blew out midair, forcing an emergency landing in Portland, in the US state of Oregon.
The incident took place shortly after takeoff on Friday and the gaping hole caused the cabin to depressurise. Flight data showed the plane climbed to 16,000 feet (4,876 metres) before returning to Portland International Airport.
The airline said Flight 1282 – which was bound for Ontario, California – landed safely with 174 passengers and six crew members.
CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement that the airline had “decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft”.
