Did you hear what happened to a Boeing 747? On January 5th, 2024 Alaska Airlines took off from Alaska to Portland and had to make an emergency landing about 16,000 feet before a door plug fell out, opening a hole in the fuselage next to seat 26A. Yes, people were sitting in that row.
Luckily the Boeing 737 MAX wasn’t at the cruising altitude of 30,000 ft, otherwise, the situation may have been much more deadly with passengers potentially walking around the cabin, said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board.
“We could have ended up with something so much more tragic,” she told reporters late Saturday.
NTSB investigators arrived in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday to begin their investigation into what happened on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. The board’s “Go Team” included experts on “structures, operations, and systems.”
That team is expected to work closely with officials from Boeing, Alaska Airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration, and associations representing pilots and flight attendants. What I would like to know is, who was the chief designer and how this flaw went undetected?
The lead designer probably brought it to the production or manufacturing team, but Alaska Airlines probably dismissed it because it was too expensive to change the design.
