Boeing CEO Apologizes For Mid-Air Blowout
Harrowing tales from inside the flight, and the man who found the door plug
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Good morning,
The weather outside is frightful for much of the US today. 49 out of 50 states had a weather watch or warning in the last 24 hours. (North Dakota—it appears you got a pass this week.)
If you’re on the East Coast expect some heavy rain; blizzards are sweeping the Pacific Northwest; and tornadoes tore through the South. At least four deaths have been reported. More than 1 million Americans lost power as of early this morning. (Power outage tracker)
A couple places we like to stream for weather coverage are Fox Weather and AccuWeather.
Stay safe out there!
Mosheh, Jill, & Lauren
🗞 BOLTS UNDONE & MISSING DOOR PLUG FOUND
Federal investigators are still trying to figure out what caused the door plug to fall off Alaska Airlines flight 1282 mid-flight. The door plug—and some iPhones—that all fell 3 miles have been found on land mainly intact, but many questions remain.
MEA CULPA
At a company-wide meeting yesterday, Boeing officials stressed the importance of safety and taking responsibility for what happened.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun acknowledged the plane maker made a mistake, telling staff it would work with regulators to make sure it "can never happen again."
“We’re going to approach this, number one, acknowledging our mistake… We’re going to approach it with 100% and complete transparency every step of the way."
In a separate meeting, Boeing told staff that findings of loose bolts in airplanes (more below) were being treated as a "quality control issue" and checks were under way at Boeing and supplier Spirit Aerosystems (different from Spirit Airlines).
MOVING FORWARD
Federal regulators told the company to revise its Max 9 inspection instructions for airlines — delaying the effort to get the jet back in the air.
As for the airlines impacted, they’ve had to cancel hundreds of flights on Boeing’s Max 9 jet which continue to be inspected.
Alaska Airlines used 65 of the planes, about 20% of its fleet, and United used 79, about 8% of its fleet.
🔩 LOOSE BOLTS
United Airlines and Alaska Airlines said they both found loose bolts and other hardware on similar door plugs on some of the Max 9 jets they were inspecting after Friday’s emergency— raising fears this could have potentially happened again.
COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE
The incident with Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 last Friday could have been so much worse. About 10 minutes after the flight took-off, while it was still ascending, the door plug came off. Phones, toys and other personal items were sucked out of the hole in the side of the plane and were strewn across Portland.
Had the blowout occurred at a higher altitude, “passengers may have been walking down the aisles, leading to much more potentially catastrophic results.”
Additionally, no one was sitting in the two seats next to the door.
Items (including a working iPhone and bolts) are being recovered, helping investigators figure out what happened.
WHAT ABOUT BOB?
Bob Sauer, a high school physics teacher, found the lost door plug in his backyard among trees he planted 20 years ago.
He contacted officials with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which picked up the door plug Monday. It’s being inspected at the agency's laboratory for a deeper, microscopic look at its materials, fasteners and condition, the NTSB said.
SOME THEORIES
The door plug has already yielded some discoveries. For example, the bolts that were supposed to keep it in place were not found in Bob’s backyard. And, guide tracks on the Alaska Airlines door plug were fractured.
Four bolts, known as stop bolts, should have prevented the door plug from moving upward and coming off the plane.
The door plug on the right side of the plane, which remained intact, had no discrepancies or missing parts, investigators said.
It is not clear if the four bolts were not ever in place, or if they went missing after the accident.
NTSB officials were also reviewing the plane’s flight data recorder to try to determine if the pressurization warning light could be linked to the door plug. The plane has several backup systems in case one of the pressurization systems fails.
🚨 Alaska Airlines had been warned three times before the Friday flight about problems with cabin pressure on the plane.
The warnings were significant enough that the airline stopped flying the Max 9 on flights to Hawaii.
HARROWING ACCOUNTS
When the door plug blew off, the cockpit door mysteriously flew open — now Boeing says the plane was designed this way, even though they did not include it in their safety manual.
That means, the pilots — whose calm and composure can be heard on audio — were subjected to the deafening wind and noise from the back of the plane.
Boeing agreed to revise its manuals to reflect that cockpit doors are supposed to open during rapid decompression.
Friday’s flight passengers included three babies and four unaccompanied children between the ages of 5 and 17.
A 15-year-old, with his mother, was sitting in the row in-front of the blown-off door plug. The mother “turned and saw her son’s seat twisting backward toward the hole, his seat headrest ripped off and sucked into the void, her son’s arms jerked upward,” and his shirt torn off, the Seattle Times reports.
⏳ SPEED READ
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🗓 ON THIS DAY: JANUARY 10
1901: A drilling derrick at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, Texas, produced an enormous gusher of crude oil, coating the landscape for hundreds of feet and signaling the beginning of the American oil boom. The US is currently producing more oil than any country in history.
1964: U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry announced that cigarette smoking is linked to lung cancer. The tobacco industry spent several more decades denying a connection.
1999: The first episode of The Sopranos aired on HBO.
2006: The High School Musical soundtrack was released. It sold 6,000 copies its first week, but after the movie premiered on January 20, sales skyrocketed. It would become the #1 album of 2006.