“Saturday Night Live” returned from its winter hiatus to poke fun at Alaska Airlines' response to a recent flight in which a panel exploded while flying over Oregon earlier this month.
Between First episode of the new year, “SNL” aired a mock commercial for the airline starring Heidi Gardner, Jacob Elordi and Kenan Thompson, sharing the company's new slogan and marketing campaign following the near-catastrophic incident two weeks ago. .
“Alaska Airlines, you didn't die, and I heard a great story,” Gardner said.
“On other airlines you can watch a movie, but in Alaska you're in a movie,” host Elordi said as passengers scream and a hole the size of a door appears on the left side of Ontario, California. He spoke before a dramatic reenactment of the plane's departure aired. side of the fuselage.
Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 departed from Portland International Airport at 4:52 p.m. on Jan. 6, but returned just 35 minutes later after the Boeing 737 MAX 9 suffered decompression after a side panel came off.
During the terrifying flight, a passenger lost his mobile phone and a young boy sitting near the opening had his shirt torn by the force of the wind and had to be held by his mother.
Fortunately, only one person was injured.
“Since the incident, we have started to make some changes,” Thompson said.
“You know those bolts that hold planes together? We're going to strengthen some of them,” the “Saltburn” star said, referring to the airline's equipment inspections after the incident.
Days after grounding its MAX 9 jets, the airline announced that after preliminary inspections, technicians on some of the planes had discovered “some loose hardware.”
“If you ask me where the emergency exit is, I'll say over there, over there, I'll probably be there within 10 minutes,” Thompson added, pointing to the window seat of the plane's cabin.
Some of the new safety features in the fake ad include an updated dictionary-sized safety pamphlet, emergency slides that deploy before takeoff, and life jackets handed to passengers upon deplaning, similar to Hawaii Airlines' I was making fun of the feature. Gestures using lei.
“Are we in Cleveland?” one “passenger” asked cast member Michael Longfellow, who was playing the flight attendant.
“Come closer, Pacific Ocean,” Longfellow replied, putting on his life jacket.
“We are the same airline that had a pilot try to shut off his engine after riding on a mushroom mid-flight,” Thompson said. “And now we can proudly say that this is our second worst flight.”
The comedian was referring to an incident in October 2023 in which off-duty worker Joseph Emerson suffered a “mental breakdown” while taking psychedelic drugs and attempted to crash a flight to San Francisco.
“Alaska Airlines is still better than Spirit,'' a voiceover says, and the video fades to black.
