Boeing door detaches in flight: do French airlines use same planes?

The US aviation authority has ordered 171 aircraft to be grounded pending inspection after a door fell off an Alaska airlines plane mid-flight. We look at whether French and European airlines use the same aircraft and if they will be affected.

The incident on January 6 happened when the Alaska Airlines flight to Ontario (California) from Portland (Oregon) reached 4,876m. Passengers reported hearing an explosion, seeing the lights flicker, then feeling the cabin depressurise.

Oxygen masks immediately dropped from the overhead compartments.

“The first thing I thought was, ‘I’m going to die,’” one passenger told the New York Times.

The plane landed safely and no passengers reported major injuries, however many were terrified by the incident.

The aircraft was a Boeing 737 Max 9 with a bolted ‘plug-in panel’ on an emergency exit in the rear compartment. It was this bolted exit that fell off, causing the cabin to depressurise.

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered all 171 Boeing 737 Max 9s with similar configurations to undergo inspection - a process thought to take up to eight hours per plane.

There are 1,376 Boeing 737 Max in service, however the majority are not the same model (Max 9) and do not have the same bolted emergency exit.

The bolted ‘plug-in panel’ is fitted on aircraft operating with reduced passenger capacity, where an additional emergency exit is not needed to meet safety requirements.

Are these planes used in Europe?

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said it will adopt the recommendations of the US Federal Aviation Administration concerning these planes.

However, the EASA statement added “no airline in an EASA Member State currently operates an aircraft in the relevant configuration”.

“The 737-9 aircraft operating in Europe do not have this configuration and are therefore not grounded by the EAD and can continue to operate normally.”

There are currently 223 Boeing 737 Max 9s in service, according to data from flight monitoring website Flight Radar. These planes are operated by:

• Aeromexico (Mexico): 19
• Air Tanzania (Tanzania): 1
• Alaska Airlines (United States): 65
• United Airlines (United States): 78
• Copa Airlines (Panama): 29
• Corendon Dutch Airlines (Netherlands): 2
• Flydubai (United Arab Emirates): 3
• Icelandair (Iceland): 3
• Lion Air (Indonesia): 3
• SCAT Airlines (Kazakhstan): 5
• Turkish Airlines (Turkey): 15

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