On Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it grounded 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 airliners after an incident involving an Alaska Airlines aircraft, in which a panel covering an emergency exit blew off in flight, resulting in depressurization and an emergency landing. No deaths or serious injuries were reported from the incident.  

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said:

The FAA is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight. Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSB’s [National Transportation Safety Board] investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.

The report continued:

The order came after Alaska Airlines flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, experienced an "incident" shortly after departure. The aircraft, which was carrying 171 passengers and six crew members, landed safely back at Portland International Airport.

One passenger told a local media outlet that people's phones were sucked out of the plane and that a child close to the damaged part of the plane lost his shirt from the violent and sudden depressurization.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg released the following statement:

Safety will always be the top priority for our Department and for FAA. Administrator Whitaker has acted to order these aircraft grounded pending the inspections necessary to ensure that they are safe to operate. https://t.co/Uojdu6gg36

— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) January 6, 2024

This is the second high-profile incident with a commercial airliner in recent days, following a Japan Airlines flight that burst into flame on colliding with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft on landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport. In that event, the airliner was safely evacuated but five crew members in the Coast Guard craft were killed.

See Related: WATCH: Japan Airlines Flight Crashes on Landing, Bursts Into Flames

The Boeing 737 Max 9 was the aircraft grounded under similar circumstances in 2019, when the Trump Administration ordered the 737 Max 8 and Max 9 jets grounded after two of the aircraft crashed, one in Ethiopia and one in Indonesia, killing all aboard. That grounding lasted 20 months.

Speaking with reporters on a conference call, acting FAA Administrator Daniel Elwell said the grounding of the 737 Max 8 and 9 came in light of new information, including from the flight data recorder and voice recorder.

“Since this accident occurred we were resolute that we would not take action until we had data,” Elwell said. “That data coalesced today.”

He said the new data tied the Ethiopian airline disaster to an earlier crash of the same model plane in Indonesia.  

Boeing has suffered several safety issues in recent months over the Max models. 

....[A]s recently as December [2023,....] the FAA urged airlines to inspect all 737 Max planes in their fleets after the discovery of missing bolts in two planes’ rudder control systems.

In April, Boeing said it discovered a manufacturing issue with some 737 Max aircraft after a supplier used a “non-standard manufacturing process” during the installation of two fittings in the rear fuselage – although Boeing insisted the problem did not constitute a safety risk.

The Max has also faced numerous notices for additional inspections since it returned to service in 2020. Boeing says that’s a result of its increased focus on safety.  

It wasn't as though travel wasn't stressful already.

RedState will continue to update you on this grounding, and further actions as events warrant.