Investigators recover key part from Alaska Airlines jet

WASHINGTON: The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said late on Sunday the “key missing component” from the Boeing 737 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, depressurising 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 27kg and covers an optional exit door mainly used by low-cost airlines.

The missing plug door was recovered on Sunday by a Portland teacher identified only as “Bob” in the Cedar Hills neighbourhood who found it in his backyard, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said.

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, 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 Homendy, who said it must have been a “terrifying event” to experience.

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. —