The Alaska Airlines plane received a warning several days before the incident in the air

Alaska Airlines has grounded a Boeing plane that had part of its fuselage skin torn off mid-air, along with an emergency exit door, after warnings of pressurization problems days before the incident.

The BBC writes about it.

Jennifer Homendy of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) noted that the plane was not authorized to make long flights over water. She added that the pilots had warned of excess pressure during the three previous flights of the particular Alaska Airlines Max 9 plane involved in the incident.

The decision to limit long flights over water was made so that the aircraft "could return to the airport very quickly" if pressurization problems arose again. The maintenance of the plane did not have time to be completed before its next flight on January 5.

However, it is not clear whether there is a connection between the pressure problems that were warned about and the problem that caused the door to blow off. The plane was new, Alaska Airlines received it in October 2023, at which time the FAA declared it airworthy. The situation is being investigated.

• On January 5, 2024, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 (flight 1282) landed at the airport in Portland, Washington, 35 minutes after takeoff, and the emergency exit door broke off during the flight. There were 171 passengers in the plane at that moment. After that, Alaska Airlines brought all 65 of its MAX 9s for inspection, and Boeing 737 MAX 9 airliners are also grounded worldwide.