Weeks after the door incident on an Alaska Airlines aircraft, news shows how this incident would have gone had there had been more inspections.

On January 5th 2024, a door plug on an Alaska Airlines flight had been flung off from the plane roughly after the plane had taken off. The few passengers that had been seated by the door have filed lawsuits against the airline since the incident had occurred. After further inspection, any and all aircrafts that had the same door plug were to remain grounded until the inspections were complete. As of recently, On January 19th, it was announced that the planes were still, in fact, grounded and not yet allowed to be flown out.

However, the flight door and plane had already been flagged for having issues prior to the Jan 5th flight. The plane’s safety features included a light that would go off when the aircraft had high pressure. Yet, this was something that had been noted by the Airline on three separate occasions. While Alaska Airlines knew about the problem at hand, the company only prohibited these flights to go anywhere overseas. Of course, the problem has not been fixed or looked into since then.

“This incident should have never happened and it cannot happen again.” The Federal Aviation Administration speaks about this in their statement on the incident. “The safety of the flying public, not speed, will determine the timeline for returning the Boeing 737-9 MAX to service.” The FAA states in their January 11th update.

Not only have the FAA been updating each week since the incident, they’ve also sent out a letter, speaking about how they will investigate the manufacturing of the door plug, and will not let any aircraft’s out until they find out why the plug wasn’t strong enough to withstand the air pressure. As of recently the FAA have put out a statement saying that they have conducted 40 inspections, and are currently collecting all data they can find.

The FAA states, “All 737-9 MAX aircraft with door plugs will remain grounded pending the FAA’s review and final approval of an inspection and maintenance process that satisfies all FAA safety requirements. Once the FAA approves an inspection and maintenance process, it will be required on every grounded 737-9 MAX prior to future operation.”

Since then, many people have spoken about how horrifying this situation could have been, and how frustrated they are with the Airline company. Pictures of the incident depict the door plug completely gone, chairs intact but folded slightly, and the air masks pulled down for passengers to use. Video footage depicts passengers calm yet shocked after the plane lands.