Alaska Airlines scare echoes 737 Max crashes in 2018-19

Fortunately, nobody died yesterday when a section of fuselage blew out for reasons still under investigation. The seat next to the gaping hole had been unoccupied, and other passengers in the row had their seatbelts on. The plane made an emergency landing in Portland, Ore., where it had departed from en route to the Los Angeles area.

The incident appears to be unrelated to the earlier disasters, which led to the 737 Max being grounded worldwide from March 2019 to December 2020, aviation expert John Strickland told BBC News.

“While we know little evidence of why this section of the fuselage has come out,” he said, “this has nothing to do with the aircraft being grounded for 18 months.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Saturday it will order the temporary grounding and inspections of certain 737 Max 9 aircraft.

A Boeing spokesperson told Fortune: “Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers. We agree with and fully support the FAA’s decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane. In addition, a Boeing technical team is supporting the NTSB’s investigation into last night’s event. We will remain in close contact with our regulator and customers.”

Alaska Airlines posted to X on Saturday: “As of this morning, inspections on more than a quarter of our 737-9 fleet are complete with no concerning findings. Aircraft will return to service as their inspections are completed with our full confidence.”

In response, one X user wrote that “an overnight ‘inspection’ of your MAX fleet gives us no confidence,” while another asked whether it was…