Alaska Airlines temporarily grounds Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after mid-air window tragedy

Taking a precautionary move following a mid-air emergency, Alaska Airlines has temporarily grounded its entire fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft. This comes following Friday night incident involving a window that blew out mid-air after taking off from Portland International Airport on its way to Ontario, California.

In a statement, the airline said all 174 passengers and six crew members have landed safely. No one was seriously hurt in the incident.

Responding to the incident, Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said it would take time to probe the aircraft as part of an urgent review. He promised a “timely and transparent” investigation.

“Following tonight's event on Flight 1282, we have decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft," Minicucci said in a statement. "My heart goes out to those who were on this flight – I am so sorry for what you experienced."

Alaska Air Group maintains total fleet of 314 planes

As per Alaska Airlines official website, Alaska Air Group maintains an operational fleet of -- 231 Boeing 737 aircraft, with an average age of 9.7 years, 83 Embraer 175 aircraft with an average age of 5 years.

Here is the fleet breakup:

737 MAX 9-- 65 planes (now grounded)

737 900 ER -- 79 planes

737 800 --61 planes

737 900 -- 12 planes

737 700-- 14 planes

Alaska Airlines' Boeing 737 aircraft makes emergency landing

Earlier today, the company said Alaska Airlines flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, experienced an incident this evening soon after departure.

The incident occurred on Alaska flight 1282, a Boeing 737-9 MAX that had been certified by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in November 2023, just two months before the flight, according to FAA records available online.

Passengers on board the plane told KPTV that they heard a loud bang and saw a hole in the wall of the plane, where a window had blown out at an altitude of 16,000 feet. A child sitting near the window was reportedly pulled by the suction, and his shirt was torn off. Some passengers also lost their phones, which were sucked out of the plane. A seat next to the window was also blown out due to decompression.

The Boeing 737 Max is one of the most popular aircraft models in the world, but it has also been plagued by safety issues and controversies. In 2018 and 2019, two fatal crashes involving the 737 Max killed a total of 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The crashes were linked to a faulty system called MCAS, which pushed the nose of the plane down without the pilots’ control.