Alaska Airlines Grounds all Boeing 737-9 MAX Aircraft After Window Blowout

A passenger has described the moment a window and chunk of fuselage blew out of a passenger plane in mid-air shortly after take-off in the US state of Oregon.

Alaska Airlines passenger Evan Smith said a boy and his mother were sitting in the row where the window blew out and the boy’s shirt was torn off him and sucked out of the plane.

“You heard a big loud bang to the left rear. A whooshing sound and all the oxygen masks deployed instantly and everyone got those on,” he told local broadcaster KATU.
Photos and videos from passengers showed a large hole in the side of the plane next to passenger seats, with oxygen masks deployed.

The airline has since grounded all of its Boeing 737-9 MAX planes after the gaping hole caused the cabin to depressurise.
The Boeing 737-9 MAX was diverted after reaching 16,000ft about six minutes after taking off at 5.07pm, according to flight tracking data from FlightAware. It made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport at 5.26pm.

Alaska Airlines said the plane landed safely with 171 passengers and six crew members. The flight from Portland to Ontario, California, “experienced an incident this evening soon after departure”, the company said.