US regulators have ordered the temporary grounding of 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft following a cabin panel blowout late on Friday that forced a brand-new airplane operated by Alaska Airlines to make an emergency landing.“The FAA is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight,” Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Mike Whitaker said yesterday. “Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSB’s investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.”The piece of fuselage tore off the left side of the jet as it climbed out of Portland, Oregon, en route for Ontario in California on Friday, forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with 171 passengers and six crew on board.The new MAX 9 had been in service for just eight weeks.It is the latest mishap involving Boeing’s best-selling model, which was grounded for almost two years following crashes in 2018 and 2019, and comes as Boeing and a major supplier are grappling with a succession of production or quality problems.There were no immediate indications of the cause of the apparent structural failure, nor any reports of injuries.Alaska Airlines had already started grounding dozens of the Boeing jets for safety checks.As of morning yesterday, Alaska said it had completed more than a quarter of the inspections and found no issues.Several of the jets were flying, according to tracking site FlightRadar24.Alaska Airline chief executive Ben Minicucci said in a statement that its fleet of 65 similar planes would be returned to service only after precautionary maintenance and safety inspections, which he expected to be completed in the “next few days”.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said a team of experts in structures, operations and systems is due to begin an investigation.Boeing said it is working to gather more information and was in contact with the airline.Flight 1282 had reached just over 16,000’ when the blowout happened, according to FlightRadar24.“We’d like to get down,” the pilot told air traffic control, according to a recording posted on liveatc.net“We are declaring an emergency. We do need to come down to 10,000,” the pilot added, referring to the initial staging altitude for such emergencies, below which breathing is considered possible for healthy people without extra oxygen.Social media posts showed oxygen masks deployed and a portion of the aircraft’s side wall missing.Passenger photos appeared to show that a section of the fuselage sometimes used for an optional rear mid-cabin exit door had vanished, leaving a neat door-shaped gap.The extra door is typically installed by low-cost airlines using extra seats that require more paths for evacuation.However, those doors are permanently “plugged”, or deactivated, on some jets including those of Alaska Airlines.It was delivered to Alaska Airlines in late October and certified in early November, according to FAA data.Kyle Rinker, a passenger on the flight, told CNN that a window popped off soon after takeoff.“It was really abrupt. Just got to altitude, and the window/wall just popped off and didn’t notice it until the oxygen masks came off,” he told the broadcaster.Another passenger, Vi Nguyen, told the New York Times that a loud noise during the flight had woken her.“I open up my eyes and the first thing I see is the oxygen mask right in front of me,” Nguyen told the newspaper. “And I look to the left and the wall on the side of the plane is gone.”“The first thing I thought was, ‘I’m going to die,’” she added.Boeing has struggled in recent years with technical and quality control issues related to its 737 MAX models.In December, the US aviation giant told airlines that MAX aircraft should be inspected to check for loose hardware on plane rudder control systems after an international operator discovered a bolt with a missing nut while performing routine maintenance.Boeing’s 737 MAX planes were grounded worldwide following two MAX 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people in total.The FAA only approved the planes’ resumption of service after the company made changes to its flight control system.
