Alaska Airlines has grounded its fleet of Boeing 737-9 aircraft after a section of fuselage blew out after takeoff Friday on a flight bound for Ontario International Airport.
No serious injuries were reported aboard the flight, which took off from Portland International Airport and made an emergency landing in Oregon.
“Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California, experienced an incident this evening soon after departure,” the airline said in a statement Friday. “The aircraft landed safely back at Portland International Airport with 171 guests and 6 crew members. The safety of our guests and employees is always our primary priority, so while this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation. We are investigating what happened and will share more information as it becomes available.”
A video apparently shot by a passenger and shared on TikTok shows a hole in the plane where a window would normally be.
“It was really abrupt. Just got to altitude, and the window/wall just popped off and didn’t notice it until the oxygen masks came off,” passenger Kyle Rinker told CNN.
“As of this morning, inspections on more than a quarter of our 737-9 fleet are complete with no concerning findings,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement Saturday. “Aircraft will return to service as their inspections are completed with our full confidence.”
Seattle-based Boeing issued the following statement: “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.”
Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci apologized to the passengers aboard the Ontario-bound flight.
“My heart goes out to those who were on this flight. I am so sorry for what you experienced. I am so grateful for the response of our pilots and flight attendants,” Minicucci’s statement said. “We have teams on the ground in Portland assisting passengers and are working to support guests who are traveling in the days ahead.”
It wasn’t immediately clear how many flights would be affected by the airline’s decision.
“As of now, we haven’t seen any impact to operations with flights departing or arriving to LAX on this airline,” Lauren Alba, spokesperson for Los Angeles World Airports, which operates LAX, told City News Service on Saturday morning.
Representatives for American Airlines and Southwest Airlines told CNS that their companies do not use 737-9 planes and their operations would not be affected.