The Alaska Airlines flight that lost a section of its cabin wall midflight on Friday and had to make an emergency landing became the latest disaster to strike Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
Due to the plane’s cabin panel blowout and landing, U.S. flight regulators grounded certain planes for safety checks. This is not the first time that groundings of 737 MAX planes have been ordered, and several fatal crashes at one point caused an international grounding of all MAX-family aircraft previously.
Here are the mishaps that have occurred with Boeing MAX jets by year:
2018
A Lion Air MAX plane crashed in Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board the aircraft on Oct. 29, 2018. The jet had plunged into the Java Sea just 13 minutes after takeoff.
A year later, an Indonesian investigation found the fatal crash was caused by aircraft design flaws, inadequate training, and maintenance problems. The report found that pilots were never taught how to respond quickly to malfunctions of the automated flight control system.
In November, the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing announced that it would evaluate the need for design or software changes to the 737 MAX jet after the Indonesia crash.
2019
Just five months after the Lion Air crash, an Ethiopian Airlines MAX flight crashed for similar reasons, killing all 157 people on board on March 10, 2019. It crashed in a field six minutes after takeoff. Ethiopian Airlines did not fly a 737 MAX with passengers until February 2022.
Following the crash in March, Chinese aviation regulators became the first in the world to ground the MAX jet, followed by the U.S. FAA and other nations’ aviation agencies. In April, the FAA formed an international team to review the 737 MAX’s safety, and Boeing cut monthly production by 20%.
The aircraft company later posted its largest-ever quarterly loss in June of that year, with the company forming a permanent safety committee two months later. In October, Boeing fired Kevin McAllister, who served as top executive of Boeing’s commercial airplanes division from 2016 to 2019, and fired CEO Dennis Muilenberg in December.
2020
Boeing took strides in 2020 to address safety concerns for the 737 MAX jet, starting with suspending the aircraft’s production in January. It was the company’s biggest assembly-line halt in over 20 years. Boeing restarted production at a “low rate” in May, followed by long-delayed flight tests of the redesigned 737 in June.
In September, the House of Representatives released its findings from an 18-month investigation that revealed Boeing failed in its design and development of the 737 MAX, as well as its transparency with the FAA. The Democratic-led House also found the FAA failed in its oversight and certification duties.
After two years of being grounded, the FAA lifted the grounding order for 737 MAX flights in November 2020.
2021
In April, Boeing halted 737 MAX deliveries after electrical problems re-grounded part of the fleet. The company settled a $237.5 million settlement with shareholders to settle lawsuits stemming from the safety oversight of the MAX aircraft.
2023
Boeing’s first delivery of the 737 MAX 7 was delayed to 2024 in April last year. In August, the company announced it found a 737 MAX supplier quality problem that involved improperly drilled holes on the aft pressure bulkhead, per Reuters.
2024
A brand new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 was forced to make an emergency landing after a cabin panel blew out during a flight at 16,000 feet. The plane, carrying 171 passengers and six crew members, departed from the Portland International Airport at 4:52 p.m. PT and returned just before 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 5. No one was seriously injured, and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the situation.
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The door plug was later found in a schoolteacher’s backyard in Oregon, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy announced on Sunday.
On Monday, United Airlines confirmed it found “loose door plugs” and “installation issues” on an undisclosed number of Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft, according to CNBC.
