Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Incident Sparks Safety Concerns, Grounding Of Boeing 737 Max Aircraft

(MENAFN- Live Mint) "An incident involving Alaska airlines Flight 1282 raised serious safety concerns and prompted the temporary grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft. The incident occurred shortly after take-off from Portland International Airport, with a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane still in the climbing phase, according to various media reports. An unused emergency exit door blew out, causing a significant loss of cabin pressure and resulting in a gaping hole in the fuselage, the passengers escaped serious harm as the aircraft was at a relatively low altitude of around 16,300 feet, revealed a BBC report. Key factors mitigating the impact were the use of seatbelts by passengers and the rapid descent of the plane before reaching its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet.
What did experts say?Aviation consultant Tim Atkinson highlighted the potential severity if the incident had occurred at cruising altitude, emphasizing the risk of passengers being sucked out of the aircraft.\"Passengers in the seats immediately adjacent, or in other seats around it who weren't wearing a seatbelt could have been sucked out of the aircraft\", explained Atkinson, as quoted by BBC.\"I guess the worst case could be you lose a row full of people and a couple of others standing nearby as well.\"The incident mirrored a similar 2018 event involving Southwest Airlines, where an engine failure caused decompression at 32,000 feet, resulting in a passenger's tragic death. The immediate concern raised by the Alaska Airlines incident was the potential for similar occurrences in other aircraft. The affected door is designed to be securely bolted to the fuselage, and since the plane involved was only two months old, wear and tear seemed an unlikely factor, the report further added latest mishap could stem from the manufacturing of the door plug that came loose or bolts that were supposed to secure it, or from a quality control issue, said Scott Hamilton of the specialized aviation news outlet Leeham News.\"If it's indeed a quality assurance issue, whether it's in Spirit or at Boeing, I would say it's more than likely a narrow, quality assurance issue,\" he said, referring to Spirit Aerosystems, Boeing's main subcontractor, as quoted by AFP.\"I think this is more of a one-off anomaly than I would a systemic issue,\" he said, the report added.\"For me it is a very isolated problem,\" added Michel Merluzeau, an aeronautics specialist with consulting firm AIR. \"I do not at all think it is a design problem,\" AFP further quoted him said evidence for this is the fact that the FAA ordered inspections that take just four to eight hours.\"We should be back to normal in about a week,\" said Merluzeau, as reported by AFP has been done so far?As a precautionary measure, Alaska Airlines opted to ground its fleet of 737 Max 9s, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to follow suit and temporarily ground 171 aircraft for inspections. The cause of the incident remained uncertain, with possibilities ranging from design flaws to manufacturing defects, as per the report Boeing, the incident added to the challenges faced by the 737 Max series. The aircraft involved was a variant of the 737 Max, designed for enhanced fuel efficiency but plagued by safety issues. Previous accidents off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia led to a global grounding of the 737 Max fleet for over 18 months due to flawed flight control software. Since its return to service, the program faced additional problems, including electrical faults and quality control issues, seeking to address safety concerns, recently called for inspections of rudders on airplanes after a missing bolt was discovered. The company faced accusations of prioritizing profit over passenger safety following the earlier accidents. Whistleblowers, including former senior Boeing manager Ed Pierson, alleged undue pressure on employees and compromised production practices, as per the report.

MENAFN08012024007365015876ID1107694548