Brits told they can opt out of flights on plane model which lost door mid-flight

24 January 2024 , 12:25

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A cabin door was ripped out mid-flight (Image: NTSB/SWNS)

Passengers can now avoid flying on a particular plane which spectacularly lost a door mid-flight this month.

Online travel agent Kayak has added filters to let users exclude flights that use Boeing’s 737 Max planes. The option comes after a piece of fuselage fell off an Alaska Airlines flight using the aircraft. The incident has led to a surge of people trying to avoid flying on the airline, the Guardian reports.

Passengers have been able to choose or exclude specific models of planes on Kayak since 2019. However, after the little used and known-about tool received a 15 time boost in popularity following the door incident.

Kayak first introduced an aircraft filter in March 2019, to add and exclude specific models of plane, but the company says it saw little use compared with the more prominent filters of the number of stops or airports.

The aircraft malfunction happened during an Alaska Airlines flight (AFP via Getty Images)

This has prompted the online travel agent to make the setting more prominent on the search page and let passengers choose between 737 Max 8 and Max 9 planes - only the latter has been grounded by America’s Federal Aviation Administration.

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"Whether you’re searching by cabin class, flight quality or aircraft type, Kayak’s filters aim to provide travellers with all the information they need to make smart decisions and travel with confidence," a company spokesperson said.

At the end of last week the USA's Federal Aviation Administration recommended that airlines inspect the door plugs on certain Boeing 737s that are older than the Max 9 jetliner that suffered a blowout. The FAA said door plugs on one older version of the 737, called the 737-900ER, are identical in design to those on the Max 9, and some airlines "have noted findings with bolts during the maintenance inspections".

The FAA issued a safety alert late Sunday. As soon as possible, airlines should visually inspect four places where a bolt, nut and pin secure the door plug to the plane, the agency said. The door plugs are panels that seal holes left for extra doors when the number of seats is not enough to trigger a requirement for more emergency-evacuation exits. From inside the plane, they look like a regular window.

The FAA said that 737-900ERs have logged 3.9 million flights without any known issues involving the door plugs. By contrast, the Max 9 that suffered the blowout had made only 145 flights.

One of the two door plugs on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 flew off the plane in midflight on January 5. Passengers and investigators have described a violent decompression as air rushed out of the pressurized cabin at 16,000 feet over Oregon.

The plane made an emergency landing with a hole in its side, and no serious injuries were reported. On a mostly full plane, no one was sitting in the two seats nearest the panel that blew out.

The FAA has grounded all Max 9s with door plugs instead of regular doors in the back of the cabin. Alaska and United Airlines are the only U.S. carriers to use the plane. "We fully support the FAA and our customers in this action," a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement Monday.

Milo Boyd