Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by Alaska Airlines from Portland International Airport in Portland, Oregon, to Ontario International Airport in Ontario, California. Shortly after takeoff on January 5, 2024, a door plug on the Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft blew out, causing an uncontrolled decompression of the aircraft.
The aircraft returned to Portland for an emergency landing. All 171 passengers and 6 crew members survived the accident, with three receiving minor injuries.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) final report, the probable cause of the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 door plug blowout was a systemic failure of Boeing's manufacturing process and ineffective oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The in-flight separation was caused by four crucial bolts that were never reinstalled after being removed at the factory.
The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737 MAX 9 (typically referred to as model 737-9 in official FAA documents) with manufacturer's serial number 67501, fuselage line number 8789, and registered as N704AL. At the time of the accident the aircraft was around two months old and had logged 510 total flight hours over 154 flights.
The MAX 9 has optional rear mid-cabin emergency exit doors, on each side of the aircraft behind the wings. Aircraft configured with greater than 189 seats, such as the MAX 9s operated by Lion Air (220 seats) and Corendon Dutch Airlines (213 seats), require these additional emergency exit doors and slides to meet regulatory requirements for evacuation speed. On aircraft with less dense configurations, such as those operated by Alaska Airlines (178 seats) and United Airlines (179 seats), the doors are not required and plugs are installed in their place. Compared to having the exit door in place, the plug is lighter, offers a full-sized passenger window, and does not have the complexity of a door with its operations and maintenance concerns. On the interior of the aircraft, the plugs are covered with cabin panels no different in appearance from a regular window panel.
The door plug was manufactured by Spirit AeroSystems in Malaysia on March 24, 2023. It arrived at Spirit's factory in Wichita, Kansas, on May 10, where the fuselage was assembled. It was installed on the fuselage before it was shipped by train on August 20 for final assembly at the Boeing Renton Factory in Renton, Washington, where it arrived 11 days later.
After the fuselage arrived at the Boeing Renton Factory, five damaged rivets were found on the fuselage near the door plugs. The plug was removed so that Spirit AeroSystems employees could fix the rivets. Once the repair was made, the plug was reinstalled, but not bolted into place.
From November 27 to December 7, the aircraft was under modification by AAR Corp at a facility in Oklahoma City to install a satellite antenna for in-flight internet service atop the rear fuselage, in the vicinity of the door plugs. AAR stated on January 8 that they did not perform any work involving the plugs themselves.
The captain was 48-year-old Brandon Fisher, who had joined Alaska Airlines in 2007 and flew as a 737 first officer for 11 years before being upgraded to captain in 2018. He had logged 12,700 flight hours, including 6,500 hours on the Boeing 737 and 304 hours on the 737 MAX 9. The first officer was 36-year-old Emily Wiprud, who had joined Alaska Airlines in 2017 and had 8,300 flight hours, with 1,500 of them on the Boeing 737 and 311 of them on the Boeing 737 MAX 9. She was also type rated on the Airbus A320 family, Bombardier CRJ, Embraer ERJ family, and Cessna Citation aircraft. Both pilots had received hands-on oxygen mask training in 2023. There were four flight attendants on board, all of whom had been trained on the Boeing 737 MAX 9 in 2019. Each had their last recurrent training in 2023.
As of June 28, 2024, Alaska returned the accident aircraft to Boeing, which is listed as the owner on the formalized aircraft registration, while awaiting delivery of a MAX 10 aircraft.
Flight 1282 took off from Portland International Airport on January 5, 2024, at 5:07 p.m. PST. Six crew members and 171 passengers were aboard the flight.
Approximately six and a half minutes after takeoff, the factory-installed door plug filling the port-side opening for the optional emergency exit door separated from the airframe, causing an uncontrolled decompression of the aircraft. The aircraft's oxygen masks deployed during the accident. No one was in seat 26A, which was immediately next to the hole. Three passengers experienced minor injuries that required medical attention, and some passengers' items were lost when the items were blown out of the opening.
A teenage boy seated in row 25 had his shirt ripped off and blown out of the aircraft; his mother said she had to hold onto him to prevent him being blown out during the decompression. Passengers reported hearing a loud bang followed by the oxygen masks deploying and a large, loud gust of wind. One passenger said that others closer to the opening in the plane were able to move to other seats further away.
The decompression event caused the cockpit door to fly open and hit the lavatory door, which initially became stuck. After several attempts, a flight attendant was able to close the cockpit door. The cockpit door is designed to open in the event of an uncontrolled decompression, but the crew was not aware of this. The laminated Quick Reference Checklist stowed below the cockpit windows was blown into the cabin. The first officer's headset was pulled off, and the captain's was dislodged.
Interior non-structural damage was observed at rows 1 through 4, 11 and 12, 25 through 27, and 31 through 33, including damage to seat 25A, which lost its headrest and was itself twisted, and seat 26A, which lost its headrest and seatback cushion as well as the tray table on its rear side.
According to flight trackers, the aircraft had climbed to about 16,000 feet (4,900 m) when the accident occurred. The pilots made an emergency descent to 10,000 feet (3,000 m) and returned to Portland, where they successfully made an emergency landing at 5:27 pm. Firefighters boarded the aircraft to check for injuries among the passengers.
At a media briefing on January 8, the NTSB provided the following timeline of key events obtained from the flight data recorder.
5:06:47 pm – Aircraft departs Portland International Airport (PDX) from runway 28L