Flight AS1282, the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft that experienced a midair door panel blowout had a scheduled maintenance check planned for the same day after technicians raised concerns about pressurisation system issues.
The relatively new aircraft, delivered just weeks before to Alaska Airlines, had accumulated 510 flight hours.
Despite the flagged issues, the plane was kept in service with some restrictions as the safety warnings were deemed not significant enough to ground the aircraft.
The incident occurred on in January when the door plug blew out at around 16,000 feet after take-off from Portland, prompting the plane to return and land back in Portland with deployed oxygen masks in the cabin.
The DOJ has initiated a criminal investigation following the incident, which has increased scrutiny on Boeing. In a letter to the employees, Boeing Commercial CEO Stan Deal has said that “The vast majority of our audit non-compliances involved not following our approved processes and procedures”, in response to the FAA audit.
