Alaska Airlines’ Boeing 737-Max suffers a window BLOWOUT after takeoff from Portland Airport
An Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California was forced to make an emergency landing at Portland International Airport less than an hour after takeoff after depressurization.
Terrifying audio recordings reveal the panicked moment the pilot radioed to air traffic control ‘we’d like to go down’ and explained ‘we have 177 on board.’
Alaska Flight 1282 was leaving Portland just after 5pm local time on Friday when an emergency door blew out at 16,000 feet.
The Boeing 737-9 MAX rolled off the assembly line just two months ago and received certification in November 2023, according to the FAA record posted online.
Passengers reported hearing a ‘very loud bang’ before a ‘deadly’ silence fell over the cabin as the plane made its emergency landing.
Alaska Flight 1282 was leaving Portland just after 5 p.m. local time on Friday when a window blew out at 16,000 feet, ripping a child’s shirt
The Boeing 737-9 MAX rolled off the assembly line just two months ago and received certification in November 2023, according to the FAA record posted online
Elizabeth, 20, told Oregon Live how ‘it sounded like your ears were popping like they normally do on an airplane, but ten times louder. I couldn’t believe it was real.’
“We were all calm,” she said of her fellow passenger, “but I felt like I was about to cry because who knows, these could be my last moments.”
Another passenger, Kyle Rinker, 29, said the plane became “dead quiet.” Nobody made a sound.’
Reports indicate that fortunately 26A, the seat next to what appears to have been an emergency exit with a window, was not occupied.
The National Safety Transportation Board said it is investigating the event and will post any updates as they become available.
Several passengers told KPTV that the plane’s oxygen masks were deployed immediately, and that several people used the masks while waiting for the plane to land at PDX.
Another passenger told the outlet that a child had to be held in his seat by his mother.
Passengers recalled how the depressurization tore a child’s shirt and sucked passengers’ phones from the plane.
It is not yet clear whether there were any injuries in the incident.
“Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California experienced an incident this evening shortly after departure,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement late Friday evening.
“The aircraft landed safely back at Portland International Airport with 171 guests and 6 crew members,” it read.
“The safety of our guests and employees is always our first priority, so while these types of incidents are rare, our flight crew is trained and prepared to safely manage the situation.”
Adding: ‘We are investigating what happened and will share more information as it becomes available.’
Videos posted on social media show passengers sitting quietly wearing oxygen masks as the plane returns to the runway.
Video shows the lights of Portland visible through the gaping hole in the plane’s wall.
Alaska Airlines has rebooked passengers on an 11 p.m. flight from PDX, according to traveler Diego Murillo, who told KPTV the airline had not yet told him about the incident.
Alaska Airlines posted on X that they were “aware of an incident” on board their flight AS1282 and said they would release more information as it becomes available
The Alaska plane returned to Portland Airport less than an hour after takeoff
On March 11, 2019, the wreckage of the Syrian Airlines flight is seen
Boeing unveiled their 737 Max in 2015 and since its approval by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in 2017, it has become one of the most widely used aircraft in the world.
A year later it crashed for the first time: in October 2018, a 737 Max from the Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board.
Five months later, in March 2019, a second 737 Max operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed again shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board.
Three days later the planes were grounded by the FAA.
It later emerged that internal messages from Boeing staff were cavalier about FAA regulations and critical of the Max’s design.
One of them said the plane was “designed by clowns who are in turn supervised by monkeys.”
Flaws were discovered in the aircraft’s MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System): in both the Lion Air and Syrian Air crashes, it was determined that the MCAS had incorrectly pointed the nose towards the ground, and the pilots could not adjust it to ignore.
In 2021, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion in fines in a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle charges that the company hid critical information about the Max from regulators and the public.
Boeing spent billions overhauling the systems and the planes returned to global skies in the fall of 2020 after 20 months on the ground – the longest such action in aviation history.