This is a developing story and will be updated with more information.
The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded all Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft earlier this month in response to a terrifying incident that took place on a January 5 Alaska Airline flight.
Following a 20-minute delay for de-icing, Flight 1282 took off from Portland, Oregon for Ontario, California with 171 passengers and six crew members. Soon, a refrigerator-sized piece of the plane, which was later found in a Portland schoolteacher’s yard, ripped off the left side of aircraft near row 26, leaving a gaping hole—and causing the cabin to quickly depressurize. Thankfully, no one was sitting in the window or aisle seat, and the plane navigated back to Portland, with everyone on board shaken, but safe. Even an iPhone, which fell thousands of feet from the plane, was later recovered nearly unscathed.
The part of the plane that fell off mid-flight is called a “door plug,” a piece that covers where an emergency door is normally located. This specific type of Boeing aircraft has an additional emergency exit door built in so that the planes can carry more passengers. But if there aren’t extra seats packed in, the door isn't required—meaning the plug is used in its place, aviation analyst Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, tells Condé Nast Traveler. “Astute observers might notice the outline of the door plug, but on the inside, you can’t tell because it has the same sidewall paneling as the rest of the plane,” he says.
In response to the incident, the FAA has grounded all Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft operated by US airlines or in US territory. They will remain grounded “until operators complete enhanced inspections which include both left and right cabin door exit plugs, door components, and fasteners," the FAA says. Before any of the planes take off again, airlines must complete corrective action requirements based on the inspection findings.
How airlines are responding
As of now, it's unclear how long the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft will remain grounded. The sudden halt immediately affected airlines using the aircraft, especially United and Alaska, the two carriers with the highest volume of scheduled flights aboard the Boeing model, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium. Airlines are responding with everything from flight cancellations to reimbursements.
United, which operates 79 of the aircraft, has canceled approximately 200 flights per day through Wednesday, January 17. Affected travelers can cancel their flights for a full refund, or reschedule their trips to a United flight departing between January 6 and January 28 (United will waive change fees and fare differences as long as it’s in the same cabin and between the same cities as the original booking). If the rescheduled trip departs after January 28 or is to a different destination, the change fee will still be waived but a fare difference may apply.
Over at Alaska, all of the Max 9 flights—about 110 to 150 flights a day—have been canceled through Tuesday, January 16. The airline has implemented a systemwide flexible travel policy, meaning anyone with an original travel date through January 18 on a 737 Max 9 aircraft can reschedule their flight through January 24. Refunds will be offered if suitable alternatives can’t be found.
Passengers with upcoming flights aboard either airline should continue to check in with the carrier for the latest information.
Several international airlines also use the Boeing aircraft in their fleet, and despite not being subject to the FAA grounding unless they’re flying within the US, most have also responded to the incident in some manner. Copa Airlines, which had 2,603 scheduled flights this month per Cirium, has suspended 21 aircraft as of Saturday, and Aeromexico, which had 2,437 flights, tells Traveler that its 19 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes are in the “final phase of a detailed inspection” and should be back in operation “in the upcoming days.”
Turkish Airlines, which had 654 scheduled flights on the aircraft this month, decided to withdraw its five Boeing 737 Max 9 planes from operation for the time being, according to the airline’s spokesperson Yahya Üstün. As for Icelandair, which has 414 January flights scheduled on the model, a representatives tells Traveler that the carrier has been in contact with Boeing and FAA, but “it has been confirmed that the issue is with equipment that is not part of Icelandair’s Max 9 configuration and as a result, our Max 9s are not affected by FAA’s requirements of inspection.” A spokesperson for Flydubai, with 342 flights scheduled, also confirmed that its 3 aircraft “are not affected” since it operates those “with a deactivated mid-aft exit door configuration, which is not referenced in the directive.”
How long will the 737 Max 9s be grounded?
“At this point, it’s unclear how long the grounding will last,” Harteveldt says, explaining that the FAA, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and airlines all need to agree on the details of the inspection and required documentation.
“Every Boeing 737-9 Max with a plug door will remain grounded until the FAA finds each can safely return to operation,” the FAA said in a statement. “The safety of the flying public, not speed, will determine the timeline for returning the Boeing 737-9 Max to service.”
Both United and Alaska have begun necessary safety checks of the planes. During initial inspections, a United spokesperson tells Traveler, they removed two rows of seats and sidewall liner to access each door plug. In doing so, they "found instances that appear to relate to installation issues of the door plug," such as bolts that needed to be tightened. United's Tech Ops team is working on fixing the issues, the spokesperson says, with a team of five technicians spending several hours on each aircraft. Alaska also issued a statement on Monday, January 8, that noted “initial reports from our technicians indicate some loose hardware was visible on some aircraft.”
This isn't the first time Boeing’s 737 Max planes have been grounded by the FAA, as crashes in Indonesia in 2021 and Ethiopia in 2019 have also led to stoppages, Harteveldt says, noting that the agency also halted the Douglas DC-10 wide body jet in the 1970s because of a faulty cargo door design.
“The FAA doesn’t randomly ground aircraft,” he says. “It only does so when the agency believes there is a credible risk of an unknown problem, which the agency wants investigated and inspected as quickly as practical.” The swift action helps the agency reduce potential issues and “provides the possibility for a faster and more thorough inspection of the affected aircraft,” Harteveldt adds.
How can I find out if my flight is scheduled on a 737 Max 9?
To see what kind of aircraft your upcoming flight is on, most airlines list the model under flight information. For United, the information can be accessed via the United app by toggling the "Flight Details" tab or by looking under "Flight Info" on your trip details page on united.com. For Alaska, the info is under the "Details" section of the app. Flight tracking sites FlightAware also provides aircraft details on the right side of the page.
Note that the Boeing 737 Max 9 may also be referred to as a Boeing 737-9, but that the similarly named Boeing 737-900 is not part of the grounded fleet.
While it may be daunting to board an aircraft with safety concerns, Harteveldt says that once the Boeing 737 Max 9s return to service, "Travelers should feel confident that the planes are safe following their inspections."
“Part of the NTSB and FAA’s investigations into the Alaska aircraft that experienced the problem will be to determine whether this was an aberration, and isolated to this individual aircraft, or whether it’s a more systemic problem,” Harteveldt tells Traveler.
As for the future of the Boeing 737 Max 9s, the manufacturer itself is fully in agreement with the FAA's actions. “We agree with and fully support the FAA's decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane,” a Boeing spokesperson tells Traveler. “Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers.”