Alaska Airlines restricted the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane involved in the mid-air incident after receiving pressurization warnings in the days before the event, according to the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The aircraft was prohibited from undertaking long-haul flights over water. The section of the plane that went missing during the incident has been located in the backyard of a Portland teacher.
During Flight 1282 on Friday evening, an emergency descent was initiated at 16,000 feet (4.8 km). Online images revealed a significant hole in the side of the plane, accompanied by hanging oxygen masks.
Passengers described the gap left by the missing component as “as wide as a refrigerator,” and the decompression force tore a young boy’s shirt off. Alaska Airlines has canceled multiple flights due to the grounding of its 737-9 Max fleet.
Boeing expressed regret over the incident, and the Boeing 737 Max has faced heightened scrutiny since two crashes in 2018 and 2019 resulted in 346 fatalities.
