Summary
- AAR, the aviation services firm contracted by Alaska Airlines, denies performing any maintenance near the ‘plug door’ of the aircraft involved within the recent incident.
- Deutsche Bank suggests that the emergency exits and a possible door plug could have been removed and reattached in the course of the aircraft’s time in Oklahoma City.
- The grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 has resulted in flight cancellations and disruptions for airlines, including Alaska Airlines and United Airlines.
With the world’s aviation highlight firmly on the recent Alaska Airlines incident, various organizations which have worked on the aircraft have reaffirmed if their work related to anything near the ‘plug door.’ Aviation services firm AAR, contracted by the carrier to perform 2KU modification to enable inflight WiFi, noted it didn’t perform any maintenance near that part during its time onboard the aircraft in query – N704AL.
Photo: Joe Kunzler | Easy Flying
November 27 to December 7
AAR, which worked on the aircraft over 11 days to enable the inflight service, noted that following the incident, shares for the corporate dropped as much as 8% by Monday. This comes after Deutsche Bank research claimed that the precise aircraft had frolicked in Oklahoma City on its last day under AAR supervision, where emergency exits could have been removed; the report from DB noted:
“It may be possible that a door plug also may need been removed and reattached during this process.”
While AAR denies this, Deutsche Bank has refused to reply to further questions by news outlet Reuters.
Photo: Joe Kunzler | Easy Flying
Details of AS 1282
The aircraft, registered as N704AL, operated AS1282 from PDX to Ontario International Airport (ONT) with greater than 170 passengers onboard. It departed from Runway 28L at 17:07 and quickly gained altitude, reaching greater than 3,000 feet one minute after take off. Two minutes into the flight, the aircraft climbed through 5,000 feet over the Columbia River and turned southeast.
4 minutes later, N704AL had reached 16,000 feet and 440 mph before rapidly descending and decreasing speed. At 10,000 feet, the aircraft turned back toward PDX and lined up for approach at 17:21. The plane landed safely on Runway 28L at 17:27, in response to FlightAware.
An almost brand-new aircraft for Alaska Airlines, N704AL, was in service for lower than three months on the time of the incident. Airfleets.net says the 737 MAX 9 was delivered to Alaska on October 31, 2023. Planespotters.net notes that the aircraft entered service on November 11, 2023.
Global groundings of the second largest of the MAX variant
The 737 MAX 9 is the second-largest variant of the MAX family, coming after the favored MAX 8 variant and before the keenly awaited MAX 10. In a high-density arrangement, the MAX 9 can accommodate as many as 215 passengers, but most have capability capped at 193 or less.
Photo: NTSB
Eleven airlines currently operate MAX 9s: Aeromexico, Air Tanzania, Alaska Airlines, Copa Airlines, Correndon Dutch Airlines, flydubai, Icelandair, Lion Air, SCAT Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and United Airlines. Eight out of the 11 airlines have scheduled flights, in response to Cirium. Chicago-based United Airlines will operate probably the most flights on the variant this month at greater than 7,000, with Seattle-based Alaska trailing nearly 3,000 flights.
For giant MAX 9 operators, the grounding has resulted in cancelations and disruptions to their networks as aircraft turn out to be unavailable. For Alaska Airlines, the second-largest MAX 9 operator worldwide, its 63 737 MAX 9s represent 20% of its fleet, and as of Saturday, around 160 Alaska flights were canceled, and 23,000 passengers were impacted. Similarly, United canceled over 100 flights because of the grounding.