Alaska Airlines announced that they immediately grounding their 737-9 fleet following an incident this evening where a door plug separated from the fuselage about six minutes into its flight that departed from PDX. N704AL (c/n 67501, l/n 8789, f/n 704), a two-month-old 737-9, was flying as ASA1282 from PDX to ONT, when the incident occurred, and fortunately there were no casualties. Because of the airline's cabin configuration, the small exit door behind the wings are plugged, and not considered an exit. Regular cabin paneling covers the interior part of the door plug.
The airline issued a
statement, that all 65 737-9s will be grounded to have those door plugs inspected. This will affect almost all of Alaska's flights to HNL; and to some degree, affect flights servicing OGG and KOA; LIH is unaffected, as the Alaska flights service there are done by 737-890s.
06 Jan 2024 UPDATE
Alaska Airlines canceled some of its Hawai‘i flights due to the grounding.
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