Federal investigators investigating last week's nearly catastrophic fuselage panel explosion on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 may have found that hardware to keep the plane safe was not in place in the first place. Investigating gender.
National Transportation Safety Board officials made the announcement Monday night. Press conferenceIt comes after United Airlines reported finding loose bolts and “installation issues” on some Boeing 737 MAX 9 jetliners following the emergency landing of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 at Portland International Airport on Friday evening. After several hours.
Officials told reporters that a door plug detached from the plane minutes after the plane took off from PDX, causing a sudden drop in cabin pressure and causing frightening “noisy” and “windy” conditions. A young passenger sitting next to him said he had been in an accident. reportedly lost his shirt While being held down by my mother.
Investigators said the large panel that was blown off the plane was located where emergency exit doors are normally located on high-seat planes and was supposed to be held in place by a stop bolt and 12 interlocking pins and pads. It is said that
NTSB aerospace engineer Clint Crookshanks said: “Previous inspections have shown that the door did indeed move upwards, releasing all 12 stops and causing the door to be blown off the aircraft.'' “There is,” he said.
“Both guide tracks of the plug were found to be damaged…The four bolts that restrict the vertical movement of the plug have not yet been recovered and it is not possible to determine if there are any bolts there. '' continued Crookshanks.
Investigators are looking into whether the bolt “was there or came out during a violent explosive decompression event,” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy added.
A jet door plug and a passenger's personal belongings that were blown off the plane were discovered Sunday in the backyard of a Portland science teacher. Investigators hope the findings will provide further clues once they arrive at the NTSB's Washington, D.C., laboratory.
The NTSB said the plane's “highly emotional” flight attendant was traumatized by the potentially fatal accident and was receiving counseling, but no one was seriously injured.
Crew members reported that there were “pretty significant crew communication issues during the event,” officials said.
“They had no idea what was going on. They were certainly concerned about the four unaccompanied minors and their focus at the time was on them and the three on their laps. They said they were children,” Homendy said.
“The flight attendants said they felt like they really needed guidance and information because the communication was so poor. And that's exactly what happened.” [a] It's a pretty scary event. ”
The plane's captain and co-pilot also told investigators that the cockpit door slammed open during the incident, and that they heard a bang and felt a change in the pressure in their ears.
At one point, a laminated flight checklist was splashed around the cabin before flight attendants closed the cockpit door, officials said.
“They had difficulty communicating… They couldn't hear each other, they couldn't hear air traffic control, and they had difficulty communicating throughout the event,” Homendy said.
Investigators said they are not tying their investigation to the loose bolts found on several United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes and are focusing only on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.
The NTSB said it expects the investigation to take a year to 18 months.
In response to the spine-chilling uproar, the Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday suspended about 170 planes overseas for inspection.
All Boeing MAX jets have been grounded for two years after two crashes on Indonesia's Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people.
Dave Calhoun, Boeing President and CEO, said: A company-wide safety meeting has been scheduled. Tuesday.
“While we have made progress in recent years in strengthening our safety and quality management systems and processes, this situation reminds us that we need to remain focused on continuing to improve every day. ,” Calhoun told staff.
