Alaska Airlines Resumes Operations of Max 9 Planes

After being grounded for nearly three weeks, Alaska Airlines resumed flying its Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes today.

The news comes after the Jan. 5 in-flight incident that made headlines far and wide in which an Alaska Airlines plane lost a door plug mid-flight. The harrowing incident unfolded on Alaska flight 1282, which departed from Portland, Oregon with 171 passengers onboard.

Not long after takeoff, the plane was forced to make an emergency landing after the cabin became depressurized when a door panel was ripped off the plane leaving a hole in the side of the aircraft. As part of the incident, passenger’s belongings were sucked out of the open doorway and one passenger’s shirt was even pulled off. There were no injuries.

On the heels of the ordeal, Alaska Airlines announced it was grounding all of its Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft.  In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stepped in and grounded 171 MAX 9 planes in the United States.

Today however, Alaska Airlines was scheduled to make its first MAX 9 flight since Jan. 5. Flight 1146 was scheduled to fly from Seattle to San Diego this afternoon at 2:20 p.m. pacific time.

Before flying MAX 9 planes again, airlines were required to engage in a detailed inspection and maintenance routine for the planes, per the FAA.

Alaska’s entire fleet of MAX 9 aircraft are expected to be flying again by the end of next week. United Airlines has also said it will likely begin flying MAX 9 planes again by Sunday.

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