Alaska Airlines Flight 1282...

[Beemerguy53]

This incident occurred several days ago, and I'm still amazed at the way it turned out.

Alaskan Airlines Flight 1282 lost a "door plug" last Friday night, at 16,000 feet over Oregon, suffered rapid decompression, and returned safely to Portland with no fatalities and only some minor injuries recorded.

The word "miraculous" is not hyperbolic in this situation. That no one was sitting in the seats next to the door plug...that all passengers were in their seats and wearing seatbelts...that no children were pulled out of their parents' arms...that no medically-vulnerable passengers suffered heart attacks...that the plug didn't hit the aircraft, or damage the horizontal or vertical stabilizers...that the basic structure of the fuselage remained intact...all of these things are nothing short of miraculous.

Kudos to the passengers who remained calm and helped each other. And many, many thanks to the crew, who demonstrated the professionalism and competence many of us take for granted but, thankfully, never have to witness firsthand.

Now it's up to the NTSB to determine what happened, and for the appropriate authorities to determine responsibility, and hold those deemed responsible accountable for this near-tragedy.

Alaska Airlines not grounding Boeing jet despite warnings comes under scrutiny | AP News

 

[Rustyt1953]

 

[lihpster]

Fault has been traced back to one passenger who said, "I hope this flight doesn't suck." Thus both ensuring that the catastrophe would occur but also the means it would take.

 

[LVSteve]

Alaska and United have now found loose bolts on an unspecified number of 737 Max9 aircraft. Somebody is getting fired at Boeing.

Boeing 737 Max 9: Two airlines find loose hardware in jet inspections

 

[venomballistics]

:: Meanwhile, in a Madison Avenue ad studio....::
"No Dillbert". " They shouldn't be blowing the doors off anything"

 

[Beemerguy53]

Alaska and United have now found loose bolts on an unspecified number of 737 Max9 aircraft. Somebody is getting fired at Boeing.

Somebody <should> get fired at Boeing. There is no excuse for this sort of thing, none whatsoever.

This could have been so, soooo much worse. Imagine this door plug separating at, say, 35,000 feet, with passengers out of their seats or flight attendants in the aisle doing the beverage or meal service. How many passengers or crew members would have been expelled from the airplane? It's too horrible to think about...

Somewhere around my house, in my modest collection of WWII aviation literature and books, I have magazine ads that Boeing used to run in Life and Look. Featuring heavily-damaged B-17s, the text of the ads touted the strength of Boeing aircraft...the truss construction of the wing spars, the self-sealing fuel tanks, the autopilot and redundant controls...and promised Mr. and Mrs. America that their sons were going to war in the finest airplanes in the sky. The ads went on to promise that when the war was over, that same Boeing expertise and technology would be used to make civilian airliners...

I have no doubt that right now, tonight, William Boeing is spinning in his grave...

 

[Onomea]

Loose bolts...? Are you kiddin' me? Given how planes vibrate, somebody shoulda used Loctite red... Or just welded the dang door plug in place.

 

[ACORN]

Loose bolts...? Are you kiddin' me? Given how planes vibrate, somebody shoulda used Loctite red... Or just welded the dang door plug in place.

Or called Phil for some Flex Seal.

 

[Skeet 028]

Don't know exactly what went wrong to allow the near tragedy...But honestly...Airplanes are frequently partially disassembled to do inspections Working Crash/Rescue as I did you see so many little things that go wrong..Aircraft have redundancy systems for those reasons. Seriously...think of it...anything man made is prone...no guaranteed to fail at some point. I see trucks and trains out west here going to scrap yards with Boeing and other makes of commercial aircraft all the time. It is more than amazing that we don't have more aircraft failures...I flew aircraft with holes in them patched with tape. Commercial aircraft have 100 hour inspections...something can always be missed by maintenance folks. Doctors have left operating items left in surgery patients. all that said...I no longer fly these days...when they squish you in like sardines...they are trying to make more money at passenger's expence...LOL...Oh for the days of the 60s and 70s flying the polar route to asia...707s even on stretch 8s Evergreen or TWA...enough room to be comfortable...going or coming from the real world...Commercial had real food too

 

[yaktamer]

I have no doubt that right now, tonight, William Boeing is spinning in his grave...

Flat spin, or ...?

 

[dockmurgw]

What do you expect from an airline that paints a portrait of the Cowardly Lion on its tailfin?

 

[yaktamer]

What do you expect from an airline that paints a portrait of the Cowardly Lion on its tailfin?

I think they've updated the image since, but I remember someone pointing out decades ago that the Eskimo on the tail was a dead-ringer for Muammar Gaddafi.

 

[Krogen]

What do you expect from an airline that paints a portrait of the Cowardly Lion on its tailfin?

They are known locally as "Jerry Garcia Memorial Airlines." I think, though, that the Eskimo looks healthier than Jerry even before he kicked the bucket.

 

[MRB1]

There should be no "plugs" allowed in a pressurized cabin. It's like the weakest link in a chain. Those A/C need structural reinforcement and make the "plug" a fixed part of the fuselage. I'm surprised the FAA allows it.

 

[venomballistics]

Flat spin, or ...?

Probably the greater half of an aerobatic pattern

 

[lihpster]

Alaska's new slogan: When one door closes another one opens!

 

[riverrat38]

It all sucks; vacuum outward and gravity down!
I wonder how long it took the pilot to get the jet down to 8000 ft, which is about where the plane is pressurized to.
The mechanics need some of the handyman's secret weapon, duct tape.

73,
Rick

 

[ggibson511960]

Pressure Design

There should be no "plugs" allowed in a pressurized cabin. It's like the weakest link in a chain. Those A/C need structural reinforcement and make the "plug" a fixed part of the fuselage. I'm surprised the FAA allows it.

The infamous plug in question does not weaken the pressure hull. On the contrary several factors about the feature strengthen the pressure retention capability of the fuselage hull. The "plug" is actually a structural panel fixed in place with 12 regaining lugs and two hinges configured so they can't hinge unless a castellated nut fixed with a cotter key is loosened. Only then can the plug be separated from the heavily reinforced frame that holds it. The frame holding the plug is of necessity much sturdier than the span of sheet metal around it. This is basic pressure vessel design. What went wrong is the fixity of the retaining bolts and nuts. The nuts are supposed to be held in place with loctite and the aforementioned castellated nuts. This configuration is not only allowed by the FAA but rigorously stress analyzed, tested and fabrication documented. It hasn't been determined yet, but all indications point toward the retaining bolting, nuts and loctite not being properly installed. If this feature was not present it would be necessary to cut a new opening to install a new exit door. The opening would require reinforcement, just as the plug does. Plus all this metal cutting would have to be exhaustively tested as it would be a major alteration to the pressure hull.

 

[Kinman]

What I don't understand is why no one was sitting next to it. Those are my favorite seats because of the extra leg room. I haven't flown for a decade but outside of first class those seats provide the most legroom and were my first choice. They always came with the understanding that in an emergency you would be required to help folks off the plane, etc.

 

[Chuck24]

Apparently they’ve been flying this plane with decompression warning lights going off for three days. The only concession they made was no long flights over water.