Trouble For Our Planes: Door Blows Off Of Alaska Airlines Jet In Mid-Air, Grounding 737 Max 9 Planes

Piece Of Wall Blows Off, Opening Jet To The Outside  

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-400 (Wikipedia) 

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 from Portland to California suffered a major malfunction on Saturday, January 5th. An entire panel in the wall of the plane, spanning the width of the adjacent passenger seats and including a window, blew off. It left a massive gaping hole. 

Oxygen masks immediately fell down, and the child of a passenger sitting in the seats beside the now open gap in the wall of the plane lost some clothing, sucked out into the open air. 

The plane turned around and went back to Oregon for an emergency  landing. 

The Boeing 737 Max jet, which is a sleek, comfortable plane for passengers, has nevertheless had a number of issues in the past. A month ago, they were all inspected for loose bolts in the rudder system. 

Two crashes of the jets, killing 346 people ended with a 20-month grounding of the plane. 

The FAA said all the planes will be grounded, while 4 to 8 hours of inspection was performed on each plane. 

Alaska Airlines is currently in the midst of a merger with Hawaiian Airlines.