Panic and near-tragedy broke out as Alaska Airlines Boeing Flight 1282 was forced to make an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, due to the emergency exit door bursting. The company has discontinued all 65 737 Max 9 models as a precaution. The US aviation safety agency has ordered the temporary grounding of 171 aircraft around the world. The directive “requires operators (airlines) to inspect aircraft before a new flight,” the agency said. So what is the real risk of detaching a piece like the fuselage that “disappeared” in the skies of the northwestern United States yesterday? Let’s proceed in order.
Boeing 737 Max grounded ‘for inspection’ after emergency landing in Portland
Turkish Airlines and US United Airlines also announced that they grounded the Boeing 737 Max 9 in their fleet following the crash of the Alaska Airlines plane: an inspection was carried out “as a precautionary measure” before the resumption of flights. Other companies will probably follow suit. Although thousands of passengers are experiencing difficulties, the requested inspections will last only a few hours, not days. “We are in contact with the FAA to determine what additional work, if any, is needed before these aircraft return to service,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement.
The Boeing 737 Max has been described as the “most scrutinized transport aircraft in history” following a series of safety issues and investigations. The Max has been grounded for a year and a half since March 2019, after two aircraft of this model crashed under similar conditions. OREach Max has undergone significant changes to return to flying safely. Approximately 1,300 737 Max aircraft have been delivered to airlines around the world. DThe 737 Max has had an excellent safety record since returning to service. Although there is currently no explanation as to why the fuselage section broke in the skies over Oregon, experts assure us that this problem has nothing to do with the plane being grounded for 18 months.
What does the loss of a window or tailgate mean?
Is a door or window blown off the fuselage an unforeseen emergency? The aircraft involved in the incident yesterday is brand new and was delivered to the airline on October 31. The fly-away part of the aircraft is not a classic emergency door, but a “walk-through door”, that is, a special panel of the fuselage near the rear of the aircraft, which in the configuration of some companies is used only as an emergency exit. . He’s not on the Alaska Airlines plane.
All airline pilots regularly train on the simulator to deal with an event such as severe depressurization in flight. There is something we need to underline, and many aviation experts are currently doing this. This is a problem that must be detected by the crew and addressed much more quickly than would occur, for example, in the event of a single engine failure in a twin-engine aircraft.
In situations like Portland, the pilot must make a turn within a few seconds because there is no time to check for other aircraft on the flight line and then descend at a much higher speed than normal. The passenger almost perceives this as a dive, even though it is not. But it is true that in this situation a pilot can only do one thing: descend at high speed, because there is no time to check the aircraft for structural damage.
According to flight tracking data, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, reached 16,000 feet (4,876 m) when it began an emergency descent. At those moments, the pilot’s purpose is only one: to raise the plane to a height where the internal and external pressures are equal. Considering that the masks only provide passengers with oxygen for 15 or 20 minutes, this is enough even if the immediate problem occurs at very high altitude.
Body part not found yet
Meanwhile, the hatchback cannot be found for now: It must have crashed in Cedar Hills, about 7 miles west of downtown Portland. To fully understand the reasons for his departure, it is important to identify him; Every part of it will be analyzed.
Helios Airways Flight 522 disaster
The most cited example of how dangerous the effects of lack of pressure can be is the Helios Airways Flight 522 tragedy. It is completely different from yesterday’s incident, it is not even comparable in terms of dynamics, but it is a useful event to understand how quickly a security problem arises. pressurization needs to be defined without wasting precious seconds. In Portland, the damage was so significant that safety procedures were immediately activated. And no one got hurt. Unfortunately, it wasn’t always this way in the past.
Scheduled Flight 522, operated by the Cypriot company Helios Airways between Larnaca and Athens airports, crashed at Grammatiko in the mountainous region north of Marathon, Greece, on 14 August 2005. All 121 people on board (115 passengers and 6 crew) died.
The accident occurred as a result of a malfunction of the aircraft’s pressurization system (caused by human error): As the altitude increased, the air in the cabin became diluted, causing fainting due to the pilots’ failure to understand the problem. occupants of the entire building due to hypoxia; The plane went out of control and continued flying on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed into a mountain.
This was determined by Helios Airways technicians to perform a test when the system for pressurizing the air inside the cabin was set incorrectly, set to manual mode, and then failed to switch back to automatic mode. The crew of Flight 522 was unaware of this incorrect setting.
However, the final report on the accident did not exclude the possibility that a “recurrence” of the failure of one of the doors, which led to air leakage from the fuselage, could also have played a role in the sequence of events. We will never know. The report also takes Boeing to task for the “ineffectiveness of the measures”: the panel of the 737’s pressurization system is not easily accessible, and it is judged that the series of alarms triggered by the incorrect setting cannot be interpreted immediately, so collaboration is done to make the situation worse. It is caused by existing human errors.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
