What a week it’s been in the airline industry. First there was the Japan Airlines A350 landing on a Dash-8, and now, we have the 737-9 MAX deciding to self-open a window (er, plug door) on departure. I tend not to comment on these kinds of incidents, because others have far more expertise than I. But this MAX issue… I had to chime in since the reaction/response has been so frustrating all around.
On Friday evening, Alaska flight 1282 departed Portland (OR) for Ontario (CA). The flight was operated by N704AL, a nearly-brand new Boeing 737-9 MAX. The airplane first entered revenue service for Alaska less than two months earlier on November 11. As the airplane climbed out of Portland, a door on the left-hand side ripped away from the fuselage and disappeared into the night. Nobody was hurt, but there were reports of a guy sitting in that row who had his shirt sucked off his body, which I guess we’ll assume was related to the incident and not another case of “customers behaving inappropriately.”
This newfound gaping hole obviously caused an explosive decompression, so the oxygen masks dropped. The pilots turned around and landed back in Portland, as uneventfully as possible considering the situation. There were some minor injuries, mostly to the young men and women who fainted from being overwhelmed after seeing that guy without a shirt on.
But let’s talk about this door, because it’s not just any door. Boeing built the -9 with a door back between the wing and the tail. You can see it vaguely in this photo if you look where there appears to be a gap between the windows.
Only airlines with very dense configurations activate that door, because they need more ways to evacuate all those people in order to pass the regulatory time requirements. I know flyDubai does and a couple other small airlines, but most do not need it. That’s the case for Alaska, United, Copa, and Aeromexico, the largest operators of the aircraft.
When you look at the outside of an Alaska Airlines airplanes, you can see where the door is.
But on the inside, you would have no idea that there even could be a door there. It is plugged — technically a “plug door” — and the interior sidewall goes right over it so nobody would even realize it was there. That’s why it doesn’t even show up on the seat map.
To be very clear, this does not exist on the shorter 737-8 MAX. That giant sigh of relief you heard was from Southwest which operates more than 200 of those airplanes. But the same thing does appear on the 737-900ER from the previous generation of 737, so this setup has been flying for years.
With this specific airplane being almost brand new and the problem happening to a plug door that regular people and even most employees wouldn’t access, it seems likely that this is a manufacturing issue. Or not. Maybe it’s an installation issue. Or maybe it’s a completely random fluke. We just don’t know for sure, and that’s why what has happened since the incident is so puzzling.
Alaska was quick to say it was grounding its fleet until inspections could be completed, but then almost immediately there were -9s in the air flying revenue flights. It was later clarified that some of the airplanes (18 at Alaska) had just been through maintenance checks that included inspections in these areas, but that couldn’t have instilled confidence in those about to board the airplane while watching what had just happened on their phones or televisions.
A day later, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chimed in with an emergency airworthiness directive. Those airlines that have the airplane with the plug door had to inspect their aircraft before flying them again… if they hadn’t recently had a heavy maintenance check which, as mentioned, did the same work. Or maybe not. By the end of Saturday, all of the -9s were grounded, even those that had been previously cleared, until an inspection.
According to Alaska, this was going to be the case until “details about possible additional maintenance work are confirmed with the FAA.” Disruptions could extend through mid-week, according to the airline, though I’d put my money on it dragging longer than that. United has put out statements as well, saying that it has 79 of the aircraft, none of which are flying now, while providing detailed information about what is going on with its operation. More recent statements from the airline basically say “we’re waiting for the FAA and Boeing to tell us what the hell is going on.”
Boeing has been mostly silent throughout this whole thing, at least in the public sphere, which must be driving all airlines insane even though it’s entirely on-brand. Boeing’s two statements (one, two) said absolutely nothing except that they admit they know something happened. The burden has fallen on Alaska and other airlines to put out information. They have been pumping out details when they can, but why is the message so confusing?
The planes are grounded… but they aren’t all grounded… but yes they are. Maybe this is because Boeing and the FAA can’t make up their minds and Alaska is just following them. Or maybe the airlines just aren’t being conservative enough. I’m surprised they didn’t just ground the airplanes until they knew more.
By Sunday morning, the FAA put out a tweet which I honestly can’t believe had to be put out there.
We’ve received a lot of questions about what the Emergency Airworthiness Directive means.
The FAA’s first priority is keeping the flying public safe. We have grounded the affected airplanes, and they will remain grounded until the FAA is satisfied that they are safe.
What on earth does that even mean? Just a day earlier the airplanes were still flying around freely after some were grounded. The FAA presumably changed what it wanted inspected. Now we’re all supposed to just trust that when the FAA thinks it’s safe, then it’s safe, though there’s no information beyond that. The FAA should act quickly, be clear and decisive, and always err on the side of safety. That is not how the FAA came across this weekend.
Clearly there’s been a concern that there could eventually be some issue with the plug door. That’s why there was an inspection process in place to ensure that everything was ok during regular maintenance checks. But that is clearly not enough since we don’t know what actually happened here. They didn’t even find the plug door until late Sunday night. What failed? Why is the -900ER not impacted even though it has the same setup? Is something different? What do they know? Boeing and the FAA have been silent on this, and the silence is deafening.
The airplanes should have been grounded right away until there was enough information, and all this flip-flopping on inspections should never have happened. This is not how parts of brand new airplanes are supposed to work, and until they know what happened, the airplane should not be carrying passengers. Everything we saw over the weekend felt like safety theater.
The thing is, it’s not like this was a structural failure. It shouldn’t be all that hard to find what happened and fix it, once they find the plug door itself (or they’ve had more time to do testing on the frame). Until then, there is a risk that if it happens again, someone could be sitting in that window seat and might leave the airplane involuntarily. Or it could happen at altitude where people might be unbelted. Even if the airplane is flyable, fatalities are entireily possible. Better safe than sorry right now; keep the airplanes on the ground.
In the meantime, since Boeing and the FAA aren’t saying anything useful, I’ll stay glued to The Air Current like the rest of you — its safety coverage is made available without a subscription, but you should still subscribe — waiting to see what the heck actually happened here.
