What exploding window plane terror could mean for flights, according to experts
Aviation experts say it is "extremely unlikely" all planes of the same type will be grounded after a piece of fuselage, including a window, blew out of a passenger plane in mid-air.
The dramatic incident involving an Alaska Airlines 737-9 MAX left a huge hole in the side of the plane, which was forced into an emergency landing in Oregon. A boy and his mum were said to be sitting in the same row as the damage and the child's shirt was sucked off out of the plane.
The airline grounded all of its Boeing 737-9 MAX planes in response. The Federal Aviation Administration later said it would order the temporary grounding of some such aircraft operated by some US airlines or in US territory. Boeing says it "fully supports" the administration's decision for inspections for planes with the same configuration.
Boeing is the world's largest aerospace company. Following two crashes in 2018 and 2019, its 737 MAX aircraft were grounded for a year and a half. The MAX, the latest version of Boeing's 737, is a twin-engine single-aisle plane which went into service in May 2017.
A passenger filmed the terrifying incident (UKNIP)
Some passengers suffered minor injuries (UKNIP)"The issue with grounding aeroplanes is not the problem, the issue is ungrounding them," Tim Atkinson, a pilot and aviation consultant, told Sky News. "Once you ground an aeroplane how you unground it is the really difficult piece. For that reason, groundings are vanishingly rare and they are always for something way more significant than this."
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He added: "Aviation safety works by statistics, what I call rolling the sky dice. So far nobody has been killed, remember it took the second MAX crash before the planes were grounded [in 2019]."
He went on to say the board of Alaska Airlines may be "kicking themselves all the way down the yard" for grounding its fleet. "I think largely this is about a minor technical problem on a plane and a significant overreaction," he said, adding that such an incident a significant number of fatalities is unlikely.
Part of the fuselage exploded mid-air (FOX 12)David Learmount, consulting editor at Flightglobal, said Alaska Airlines and Boeing would be looking to find out "exactly what the problem was", adding: "Is this a design or a manufacturing fault or has the aircraft suffered damage which has shown itself later?" He said he doubted the incident would dent passenger confidence in Boeing 737 MAX planes, but added: "There may be some nervous fliers who will shy away from flying on MAXs."
After the Alaska Airlines incident, a Boeing spokesperson said: "We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer. A Boeing technical team stands ready to support the investigation."
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