One of 1st Alaska Airlines 737-9 MAX airplanes cleared to fly after fleet grounding lands at PDX

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – Boeing’s 737-9 MAX fleet is taking off weeks after a door plug blew out mid-flight in Portland, and on Friday night, one of those planes landed in Portland coming from Las Vegas.

Aaron Tiger said he received a text before getting on board that his plane was one of the recently inspected aircraft.

“I’m thinking the door’s going to blow out,” he said.

Some passengers on board one of the first Alaska Airlines 737-9 MAX airplanes to return to service said the flight began with the captain coming out of the cockpit to greet all of the passengers to thank them for being onboard.

“He said his thing about the crew and everything,” said Julie Mast, who regularly flies on the airline. “And they haven’t done that. So, I think he was trying to make everyone feel better.”

Mast said she doesn’t blame the airline for the incident that led to the emergency landing three weeks ago.

“Millions of flights go out,” Mast said. “It’s kind of a numbers game.”

However, she does believe it’s a good thing that Alaska Airlines’ fleet of 65 737-9 MAXs was inspected by the FAA, and other passengers agreed that it appears the airline is doing their due diligence to ensure people are feeling safe.

As for the flight itself, passengers said it went off without a hitch.

“It was smooth sailing,” Mast said. “Vegas sometimes is choppy. It was a really good flight.”

Another passenger, Theresa Fernandez, said she wasn’t even worried.

“It was smooth,” Fernandez said. “It was clean. No turbulence at all. It was a really smooth flight.”

Alaska Airlines calls each aircraft inspection thorough, which they said takes about 12 hours.

Copyright 2024 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.