Alaska Airlines Grounds Fleet of Boeing 737 Max 9 Jets After Midair ‘Incident’

Riddick3001@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 329 points –
Alaska Airlines Grounds Fleet of Boeing 737 Max 9 Jets After Midair ‘Incident’
nytimes.com

And here we go again, another bOING 737 Max.

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@Australis13 @HowRu68 "Fuselage" is misleading here. Reports are that it was an exit door plug, which are installed as "blanking plates" in extra exit rows that aren't used in particular seat configurations.

This suggests it was improperly installed.

exit door plug, which are installed as "blanking plates".

Do you have some more info? I can't find any new detailed info and I'm no airplane mechanic.Afaik, blanking plates are usually cosmetic, and the problem occured due to cabin pressure loss. Also, the plane was supposedly certified, recently.

@HowRu68 Lots of informed discussion here. reddit.com/r/aviation/comments…

Thx! And, to clarify the situation I copied this comment from @Sarah link.

It's not a "plug type door". It's a plugged door. They're different things. This isn't a door at all. It doesn't open.

Indeed it's NOT part of the fuselage (plane frame), it was built as an empty socket for the placement of an eventual (extra) emergency door, depanding the seat configuration. In this plane they did a faulty install of a " plug-in "instead.

Whether or not it was a plug, at the time of the incident this piece its role was basically that of a portion of fuselage.

@sndrtj Point being, it’s not like this is the fuselage failing. It’s a plug that wasn’t fixed in place properly.

This is the difference between “critical design flaw” and “someone fucked up putting it together”