US investigators recover key part from Alaska Airlines 737 MAX jet

WASHINGTON — The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said late on Sunday the “key missing component” from the Boeing MAX 9 jet involved in an Alaska Airlines emergency landing had been recovered from the backyard of a suburban home.

The plug door tore off the left side of an Alaska Airlines jet on Friday following takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, depressurizing the plane and forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with all 171 passengers and six crew on board.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Saturday ordered the temporary grounding of 171 Boeing MAX 9 jets installed with the same panel, which weighs about 60 pounds (27 kg) and covers an optional exit door mainly used by low-cost airlines.

The missing plug door was recovered on Sunday by a Portland school teacher identified only as “Bob” in the Cedar Hills neighborhood who found it in his backyard, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said, saying she was “very relieved” it had been found.

She had earlier told reporters the aircraft part was a

“key missing component” to determine why the accident occurred.

“Our structures team will want to look at everything on the door - all of the components on the door to see, to look at witness marks, to look at any paint transfer, what shape the door was in when found. That can tell them a lot about what occurred,” she said.

The force from the loss of the plug door was strong enough to blow open the cockpit door during flight, said Ms. Homendy, who said it must have been a “terrifying event” to experience.

“They heard a bang,” Ms. Homendy said of the pilots, who were interviewed by investigators.

A quick reference laminated checklist flew out the door, while the first officer lost her headset, she said. “Communication was a serious issue... It was described as chaos.”

Ms. Homendy said the cockpit voice recorder did not capture any data because it had been overwritten and again called on regulators to mandate retrofitting existing planes with recorders that capture 25 hours of data, up from the two hours required at present.

EARLIER PRESSURIZATION ISSUES

Ms. Homendy said the auto pressurization fail light illuminated on the same Alaska Airlines aircraft on Dec. 7, Jan. 3 and Jan. 4, but it was unclear if there was any connection between those incidents and the accident. —