CALIFORNIA/OREGON (Reuters)

Alaska Airlines has grounded dozens of Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets for safety checks after a cabin panel blowout forced a brand-new airplane loaded with passengers to make an emergency landing.

Airline CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement the 65 similar planes would be returned to service only after precautionary maintenance and safety inspections, which he expected to be completed in the “next few days”.

Flight 1282 had reached 16,000 feet bound for Ontario, California, before returning to Portland, Oregon, where it landed safely at 5:26 pm on Friday (January 5) with 171 passengers and six crew, according to the airline and FlightRadar24.

“We’d like to get down,” the pilot told air traffic control, according to a recording posted on liveatc.net.

“We are declaring an emergency. We do need to come down to 10,000,” the pilot added, referring to the initial staging altitude for such emergencies, below which breathing is considered possible for healthy people without extra oxygen.

Social media posts also showed oxygen masks deployed and a portion of the aircraft’s side wall missing.

WATCH:

BREAKING: Alaska Airlines plane makes emergency landing in Portland, Oregon after window blows out in mid-air.

Several items, including phones, were sucked out of the plane when it suddenly depressurized. Everyone is safe. pic.twitter.com/BtOB1RU3tn

— BNO News (@BNONews) January 6, 2024

Passenger photos appeared to show that a panel that can be used for an optional rear mid-cabin exit door had been torn away, leaving a door-shaped gap.

The extra door is typically installed by low-cost airlines using extra seats that require more paths for evacuation.

However, those doors are permanently “plugged”, or deactivated, on Alaska Airlines jets.

“While this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation,” Alaska said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating the depressurisation incident. The Federal Aviation Administration also said the crew had reported a pressurisation issue, and that it would investigate.

The new MAX 9 was delivered to Alaska Airlines in late October and certified in early November, according to FAA data.

Boeing Co. said it was looking into the emergency landing.

“We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” the company said in a statement. “We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer.”

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“Whenever you have a rapid decompression such as this, it’s a major safety event,” said Anthony Brickhouse, an air safety expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

“I can’t imagine what these passengers experienced. It would have been loud. The wind would be rushing through that cabin. It was a probably pretty violent situation, and definitely a scary situation.”

The incident shows the importance of passengers keeping their seatbelts buckled while seated in an airplane, even if the fasten seatbelt light is off, Brickhouse said, noting that the oxygen mask system appeared to have functioned properly.

Reports said the seat next to the left-hand panel, which contains an ordinary passenger window, was unoccupied.

“This is a very, very serious situation and it could have been a lot worse,” he said. “If someone had been sitting in that seat, and they weren’t buckled in, it would have been a different situation.”

Last week, Boeing said it was urging airlines to inspect all 737 MAX airplanes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder control system.

The FAA said it was closely monitoring Boeing 737 MAX inspections and would consider additional action if more loose or missing hardware was found.

The 737 MAX was grounded for 20 months worldwide after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 linked to poorly designed cockpit software killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia. Boeing is awaiting certification of its smaller 737 MAX 7 and larger MAX 10.

China’s aviation regulator is conducting an emergency meeting to consider a response to the incident, including a possible grounding of the Boeing Max fleet in the country, Bloomberg news reported on Saturday.

The FAA has carefully scrutinized the MAX for years, saying in 2021 it was tracking all 737 MAX airplanes using satellite data.

The fuselage for Boeing 737 planes, its most popular model, is made by Kansas-based Spirit AeroSystems. In August, Boeing identified a quality problem involving Spirit that resulted in improperly drilled holes on the aft pressure bulkhead.

Spirit was not immediately available for comment on the Alaska incident.