Alaska Airlines explosive decompression 1/5/23

claims on reddit are that the window seat was vacant. What are the actual odds of there being a vacant seat on an airline lately, much less a window?!

I think I did a leg on this plane last month, and they were crowing about how new it was. Whoops!
 
schmookeeg said:
claims on reddit are that the window seat was vacant. What are the actual odds of there being a vacant seat on an airline lately, much less a window?!

I think I did a leg on this plane last month, and they were crowing about how new it was. Whoops!
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Another big fat L for Boeing. Can’t blame AS for a brand new airplane attempting to come from together.
 
schmookeeg said:
claims on reddit are that the window seat was vacant. What are the actual odds of there being a vacant seat on an airline lately, much less a window?!
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If someone had occupied that seat and hated using the seat belt during cruise flight, the seat was certainly vacant after the window blew out.
 
Emergency exit opened, blew out - photo shows it wasn’t a window that departed the plane. Apparently airlines can put a plug door there if they don’t want the emergency exit. Wonder who checked it last?
 
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skyking3286 said:
Emergency exit opened, blew out - photo shows it wasn’t a window that departed the plane. Apparently airlines can put a plug door there if they don’t want the emergency exit. Wonder who checked it last?
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I don’t believe that is the emergency exit.

Redacted

A picture below shows that it was a door that blew out.
 
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The outline from external view is not only a window. Airlines can adjust seating space. The plug is used if they aren’t high density configured and have no need for the exit.
 
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My crayon and piece of cardboard math calculated a ∆P around 3.6 PSI between the aircraft cabin and outside pressure when the event occurred at the reported altitude of 16,000'. This assumed a cabin altitude of 6,500'. Does that sound reasonable?

Passenger quotes seem to indicate the depressurization wasn't that violent, and some of the printed material in the nearby seat back pocket remained intact, so that squares with a lower differential.
 
Bill said:
I don’t believe that is the emergency exit. One, the emergency exit is over a wing. I don’t see a wing outside of that hole. Two, the pitch between the seats is too narrow to be an escape aisle.
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That is a "mid exit door", required for seat pitches that result in a passenger count above a certain threshold. Tight pitch equals more butts, so you need more doors to get those butts out of the plane.
As someone else stated, it's possible to order the aircraft in a configuration that retains the door as you see it from the outside, but the internal side wall lining panel makes it appear like any other window.
That side wall panel appears to have been the first thing out the hole.
 
3393RP said:
My crayon and piece of cardboard math calculated a ∆P around 3.6 PSI between the aircraft cabin and outside pressure when the event occurred at the reported altitude of 16,000'. This assumed a cabin altitude of 6,500'. Does that sound reasonable?

Passenger quotes seem to indicate the depressurization wasn't that violent, and some of the printed material in the nearby seat back pocket remained intact, so that squares with a lower differential.
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At 16000, they would be at sea level or landing field elevation. Probably more like 7+ psi differential. Not sure where they were going.

Im not sure about a -900, but x700 and - 800 are over the wing but that sure looks like a door and not just a window.
 
3393RP said:
My crayon and piece of cardboard math calculated a ∆P around 3.6 PSI between the aircraft cabin and outside pressure when the event occurred at the reported altitude of 16,000'. This assumed a cabin altitude of 6,500'. Does that sound reasonable?

Passenger quotes seem to indicate the depressurization wasn't that violent, and some of the printed material in the nearby seat back pocket remained intact, so that squares with a lower differential.
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Depends entirely on the aircraft's pressurization schedule. I don't fly a 737, but the airplane I fly tries to stay as close to sea level (or airport elevation) as long as possible while also allowing for smoothly increasing the cabin altitude.
 
“While people were shaken, no one was hurt, though a child's shirt got pulled through the opening, she said. The child and the mother were sitting across the aisle when the panel blew out, and Elizabeth told KGW that she heard the mom had to drag her son back inside, his skin reddened by the wind.”
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‘Elizabeth’ was sitting two rows behind.

:oops:
 
I snap my seat belt kind of loose on a airliner, might just be a little tighter from now on.
 
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So, I thought the doors were wedge shaped in one direction to prevent them from blowing out?
 
It's a 737-MAX9. Here's the plane in the earlier days:
718491_1700753452.jpg

Here's there own seat map...
1704551797223.png

While there is definite a emergency exit there, they don't show it as an exit row (and there doesn't appear from the photo to be much of a change of seat pitch there.
 
It may have to do with passenger count or number of seats installed. I know in Asia we carried more people in the same model of plane, than we did in the states.

So depending on configuration it may not be needed regulation wise here, but could be required overseas.

(g) Type and number required. The maximum number of passenger seats permitted depends on the type and number of exits installed in each side of the fuselage. Except as further restricted in paragraphs (g)(1) through (g)(9) of this section, the maximum number of passenger seats permitted for each exit of a specific type installed in each side of the fuselage is as follows:

Type A 110
Type B 75
Type C 55
Type I 45
Type II 40
Type III 35
Type IV 9
 
Anyone have any informed idea about how long Alaska will ground them? I've got a flight Monday AM on a max9. No notice from Alaska yet.

Sent from my SM-S901U1 using Tapatalk
 
Until I learn there are actual witnesses about the following, I’ll consider it as false:

“…she heard the mom had to drag her son back inside, his skin reddened by the wind.”
 
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3393RP said:
Passenger quotes seem to indicate the depressurization wasn't that violent, and some of the printed material in the nearby seat back pocket remained intact, so that squares with a lower differential.
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Yet was strong enough to completely remove the upper seat back cushion from the seat, as well as the shirt from a nearby child.
 
OK, here's the story on the "door" apparently. The airframe is designed with another set of exits between the over-wing and rearmost door. If you run your 737-900 in all economy configurations, you need that door to meet the evacuation requirements. If you run in a multi-class arrangement, you've reduced the passenger count to a point where it is not needed and it is replaced with a non-operable plug. This means you can maintain the seatpitch through that area where the door would have been.
 
Aren't their engineers great?
 
I would hope that the Boeing employee(s) who assembled this door in the fuselage will be identified and fired.

Work assignments and time reports will point the way, and there should be an actual signature/initials on an assembly completion form.

If it is an A&P, the FAA should revoke the certificate.

We do not need this person working on any class of aircraft.

It may be that the original fitting was correctly done, and a crew installing the interior unlatched the door while doing their work, but that should also be possible to determine, and blame properly documented. Aircraft assembly at the factory is well documented, and the NTSB/Boeing inspections should determine whether the latches were partially secure, with the interior in place, or they were never properly installed.

This specific Boeing was delivered to Alaska early in November, so two months of flights before failure.
 
Lucky the door didn’t impact any of the empennage control surfaces on it’s departure. Also lucky the door didn’t harm anyone on the ground.
 
How many aircraft are flying with this panel/door design, and how long have they been flying? I'm not sure we can blame Boeing engineers for this particular failure.
 
Alaska grounded all planes with this config (I think a total of 88) until the issue is resolved.
Lots of cancelled flights in the next weeks.
 
Capngrog said:
How many aircraft are flying with this panel/door design, and how long have they been flying? I'm not sure we can blame Boeing engineers for this particular failure.
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Huh? Not sure your conclusion at this time, makes sense. Many engineering failures are a result of cycle times.
 
I wonder if anyone has found the door yet? They were (mostly) over land when everything went pear shaped.
 
Capngrog said:
How many aircraft are flying with this panel/door design, and how long have they been flying? I'm not sure we can blame Boeing engineers for this particular failure.
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It has been posted elsewhere that it's a fuselage plug installed at the factory. This is almost surely 100% on Boeing.
 
Fairly new plane too.. right? October or November? Gotta say McDonnell, I mean Boeing, ain't inspiring confidence!
 
Juan Browne's (Blanolirio) report is good. Confirms comments above about the nature of the inactive emergency exit door, which popped out with no apparent damage to the airframe.


HHH
States Flown.jpg
 
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