Boeing facing more questions after mid-air panel blowout

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing is facing scrutiny after an emergency exit door on one of its planes blew out during a flight, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the fuselage.

Dramatic footage captured the incident on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on 5 January, just minutes after the jet – a Boeing 737 Max – took off from Portland International Airport. 

The panel was found in the back garden of a school teacher in Oregon late on Sunday, "giving investigators a key clue as they try to piece together" what happened, said The Wall Street Journal. Two mobile phones, believed to have fallen from the plane, have also been found.

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Fortunately, no passengers had been seated directly next to the damaged section of the plane, although one witness reported a young boy seated nearby had his "shirt torn off him and sucked out of the plane", said Sky News. The pilot was able to make a safe emergency landing with all 171 passengers and six crew members.

The impact was "reduced by two key factors", said the BBC. The plane, which was only two months old, was ascending, so passengers were wearing seatbelts, keeping them safe in their seats, and was flying at 16,300ft rather than its 38,000ft cruising height. At that higher level, the "sudden rush of air would have been much more violent, and potentially lethal".

The incident presents a "big problem" for Boeing, the BBC explained. This make of plane was originally intended to be "the latest generation of Boeing's 737 workhorse", but it has a "badly tarnished" safety record following two "near identical" incidents in 2018 and 2019. The "catastrophic" crashes, off the coast of Indonesia and near the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, claimed the lives of 346 people. Both were caused by "flawed flight control software", the broadcaster added, and the incidents resulted in the global 737 Max fleet being grounded for 18 months.

In the wake of the latest incident the US Federal Aviation Administration has temporarily grounded 171 aircraft for inspections, a decision Boeing said it "fully supports".