“Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, experienced an incident this evening soon after departure,” the company said in an emailed statement. “The aircraft landed safely back at Portland International Airport with 174 guests and 6 crew members.”
The company said it would share more information when it became available.
The flight left Portland at 4:52pm (local time) but returned just before 5:30pm.
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The plane rose as high as 16,000 feet (4,876m) during the flight and then began descending, according to data on the flight tracking website FlightAware.
KPTV-TV reported photos sent in by a passenger showed a large section of the aeroplane’s fuselage was missing.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it was investigating an event on the flight and would post updates when they are available.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew reported a pressurisation issue, and said it would investigate.
The Boeing 737-9 MAX rolled off the assembly line and received its certification just two months ago, according to online FAA records.
If someone had been sitting in that seat, and they weren’t buckled in, it would have been a different situation
Boeing said in a statement that it was looking into the emergency landing.
“We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer. A Boeing technical team stands ready to support the investigation.”
“Whenever you have a rapid decompression such as this, it’s a major safety event,” said Anthony Brickhouse, an air safety expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
“I can’t imagine what these passengers experienced. It would have been loud. The wind would be rushing through that cabin. It was a probably pretty violent situation and definitely a scary situation.”
The incident shows the importance of passengers’ keeping their seat belts buckled while seated in an aeroplane, even if the fasten seat belt light is off, Brickhouse said, noting that the oxygen mask system appeared to have functioned properly.
“This is a very, very serious situation and it could have been a lot worse,” he said. “If someone had been sitting in that seat, and they weren’t buckled in, it would have been a different situation.”
Additional reporting by Reuters