The 737 Max’s Departure

On Jan. 5 at 5:07 pm, what should have been a regular, routine flight turned into an unforgettable nightmare. For around 15 minutes, the horrified passengers of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 which departed from Portland, Oregon heading to Ontario, California were midair with an opening in the side of their plane. The door plug had fallen off less than 10 minutes after take off, causing depressurization throughout the plane. Although there were three minor injuries, all 177 people survived. The incident, which prompted a federal investigation into the plane’s manufacturer, Boeing, is the latest episode in a string of intense controversy and debate surrounding the 737 MAX jet (British Broadcasting Company).

As six staff members and 171 passengers were subjected to decompression, oxygen masks were deployed, with passengers describing the scene as loud and chaotic. According to The Seattle Times, a 15-year-old Oregon boy seated near the hole had his shirt torn off his body and his mother had to hold onto his body to prevent him from getting sucked out of the plane too. The pilots, despite having trouble communicating with air traffic and each other due to the deafening decompression, successfully U-turned and made an emergency landing at 5:27 p.m. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homedy stated that had passengers gotten up from their seats or sat next to the empty plug, a much greater tragedy could have occurred (Cable News Network). Although, the psychological damage was widespread, with many passengers sending what they believed were their final text messages to loved ones, just a few passengers were physically harmed. Some 20 people filed lawsuits against Alaska Airlines and Boeing, citing extreme emotional duress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), hearing damage and other injuries (ABC News). Among the plaintiffs were three children aged one, three and five. The passengers recounted their confusion as the plane shook violently. One was hit in the face by items sucked out of the plane, leading to whiplash and severe headaches, while another passenger suffered a seizure after landing. Many of the plantiffs claim that the oxygen masks deployed were faulty, with one person passing out as a result of their dysfunctional mask. Dissatisfied with Alaska Airlines’ official apology, ticket refunds and $1,500 compensation, the plaintiffs are calling for unspecified additional monetary reparations and measures taken to ensure that such an event never happens again (Business Insider). AP Psychology and AP Statistics teacher Vararat Chaiyont-Kan discusses the varied mental impact on passengers in greater detail and offers possible solutions.

“One of the biggest psychological disorders [that passengers could develop is] PTSD, where they will relive the traumatic moment again and again,” Chaiyont-Kan said. “Because these people thought they were going to die, it is possible that when they are in a similar situation to the shaking and noise of the plane, it will put them back into that moment. They can [also] create a new fear of being on an airplane again and have sleepless nights with repeating nightmares. [One way to cope] is talking to a psychologist and working through what their fears are. For the most severe cases, [there are] immersive virtual reality systems which simulate a safe and calm [airplane experience].”

In the aftermath of the flight, Oregon citizens found belongings, including two cellphones, which were sucked out during the incident. In fact, a Portland school teacher found the very door plug that fell off during the flight in his backyard. This discovery held an undercurrent of fear as anyone in the vicinity of the falling objects could have easily been hit and severely wounded by one. These objects were recovered by the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in their ongoing investigation, which began on Jan. 6. The NTSB and FAA ordered the temporary grounding of all 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets, dealing a blow to United and Alaska Airlines, who have the most of these aircrafts, with 79 and 65 planes respectively (BBC). The NTSB found that the door of Flight 1282’s plane had been dislodged and that it was missing bolts when it left the factory. Both United and Alaska also reported loose hardware on an undisclosed number of planes in their investigations. Furthermore, the cockpit voice recorder of Flight 1282 was cut off during the incident after its maximum of two hours. Although current U.S. standards deem two hours as sufficient to record accidents, in the case of Flight 1282, the voice recorder was not reset upon landing, overwriting information crucial to the investigation. This prompted an effort by officials to increase the time to 25 hours, a goal which they consider feasible in the current digital age (BBC). Prior to the accident, the jet used had been restricted from ocean flights due to pressurization issues on three previous flights, although the extent to which this connects to the door plug is unknown. Due to these issues, the FAA is investigating both the 737 MAX 9’s design and the Boeing company’s maintenance of their planes, although Boeing itself has stated that the incident was due to the poor quality of inspections rather than a design issue (AP News). The FAA completed an initial inspection of door plugs on 40 planes on Jan. 17 and are evaluating whether or not the 737 MAX 9 fleet is fit to return to service (Bloomberg). Freshman and STEM for the Future club member Mayah Singh-Barrett, however, argues that the planes should stay grounded permanently.

“There have been problems with [the 737 MAX planes] in the past that have not been resolved,” Singh-Barrett said. “With this aircraft, [Boeing was] focused on software and a streamlined design, but the hardware has not been up to par. They should take the 737 MAX off the runways because it is too problematic to work, with all of its [reoccurring] issues.”

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was not an isolated incident: the Boeing 737 MAX has been described as the most scrutinized transport aircraft in history (BBC). The 737 MAX was launched due to pressure from Boeing’s competitors. Aviation industry insiders have claimed that Boeing executives wanted the plane to be designed quickly and cheaply in order to make as much profit as possible. These conditions have been correlated with a pair of 737 MAX 8 jet crashes in Oct. 2018 and March 2019. Both were caused by a malfunction in a new software system, resulting in a combined 346 deaths. Thus, the recent Alaska Airlines fiasco has only heightened the crisis surrounding the Boeing 737 MAX’s safety (PBS). The incident also brought the broader question of air safety into the limelight. Three days prior to the Alaska Airlines incident, a Japan Airlines plane collided with an earthquake relief aircraft as it was landing. Despite the fact that all 379 people onboard the Japan Airlines jet escaped within 20 minutes, experts have begun to criticize current airline evacuation tests, which demonstrate how almost a thousand people can evacuate within 90 seconds, as unrealistic (Wall Street Journal). Despite the immense safety advancements of air travel, with the likelihood of being in a fatal flight accident one in 11 million opposed to one in 5,000 for fatal car crashes, these two successive incidents serve as reminders of the importance of airline regulation (CNN). Among those calling for increased precautions is senior Tristan Tang.

“Safety standards should be reformed across all air travel because there might be instances of careless maintenance [that have not been investigated yet on] other airlines,” Tang said. “This incident should make us more aware of not just flight maintenance, but the role work ethic, organizational management and regulation play in our safety in a wider context. [It is] important it is to fix the problems at the root in order to solve [them], by [learning from] the example of other experiences.”