OAN’s Abril Elfi
9:41 AM – Saturday, January 5, 2024
An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to emergency land in Portland, Oregon after a big section of the plane blew out mid-air.
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On Friday night, flight 1282 which was heading from Portland to Ontario, Canada had to make an emergency landing back at the Portland International Airport after it “experienced an incident,” right after take off.
According to the transcript of an air traffic control call from LiveATC.net, the pilots requested an emergency landing when the cabin depressurized soon after takeoff.
In photos shared on social media there looked to be a hole in the fuselage next to a passenger seat.
“The safety of our guests and employees is always our primary priority,” Alaska said in a statement, “so while this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation.”
The 65 planes will only be put back into service “after completion of full maintenance and safety inspections,” according to a statement from CEO Ben Minicucci, who referred to the grounding as “precautionary.”
“We are working with Boeing and regulators to understand what occurred tonight, and will share updates as more information is available,” Minicucci said.
Records maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration indicate that the Boeing 737 MAX 9 has been in operation since October 2023.
The manufacturer of aircraft claimed to have a technical team available to assist with the inquiry.
“We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” Boeing officials said in a statement. “We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer.”
Six crew members and 171 passengers were on board Flight 1282.
In order to look into the incident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced on Saturday that they were sending a “Go Team” to Portland.
According to the NTSB, the team, which consists of specialists in systems, operations, and structures, will arrive on the scene later on Saturday.
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