This is why (a) you keep your seat belt on during a flight when sitting, as advised and (b) you listen to the safety briefing at the start of the flight, every time. I think the recent Japan Airways crash should be an object lesson to all passengers as to the necessity of keeping calm and following instructions from the cabin crew during any emergency.

If you’re wondering why the panel on the outside that blew out made a perfect square, it’s because it was a plug door panel. Boeing has an option on the 737-900ER/MAX 9 for an extra pair of exit doors if it is a high-capacity configuration, however ASA doesn’t have any

737 MAX is a very safe air plane, as long as it stays on ground with the engines OFF!

Imagine sitting next to that when that happened, after you landed you got an auto email from Alaska saying: We see you have landed, please rate our trip and leave a review!

It is a 737 MAX 9, only a few months old. Incredible.

I recently flew to California for a trip. While selecting for flights, I always checked on the type of aircraft for each flight, making sure to avoid any utilizing Max aircraft. There were several Alaska Airlines itineraries with pretty good prices but I skipped them because they were on Max planes. Same with some United offers.

Luckily everyone aboard that flight had landed safely on the ground. Kudos to the pilots & crew for getting everyone off the disastrous plane on the ground.

This is called a plug door. It is built for high occupancy routes and a door could have been installed by the factory but Alaska airlines did not order it. It’s common on airlines in foreign country’s that are not equipped with easy access to the aircraft like we have in the US.

My niece died on Alaska Air flight 261 in 2000, which was blamed on their lack of maintenance, to save money! A part that was supposed to be checked and greased every 5,000 hours, Alaska pushed it back to 25,000 hours, and the part retrieved from the ocean, HAD NO GREASE on it. "a loss of airplane pitch control resulting from the in-flight failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew"

I am surprised people didn't get charged extra for the view.

It wasn’t a door, it was a plug in a location which could have held a door.

Good reason to keep your seat-belt fastened the entire flight.

16,000 feet? Very, very lucky for passengers. The pressure differential was not close to maximum which raises questions about the plane.

This is a BRAND NEW plane....BRAND NEW.....not been off the assembly line more than a few weeks! How TF does this even happen and it wasn't even the emergency door!!

Luckily, they were only at 16,000 feet. The initial decompression was far less violent than it would be at 35,000.

Luckily no one was in the seat beside the blown out section of wall. Plane was still climbing, so passengers were still strapped in with seat belts. Things could have been very different otherwise.

Now that's a window seat!!

Styrofoam and superglue are not adequate for making a door plug.

If it's Boeing, I ain't going.

"I'm not going if it's Boeing" 😒

It sure looks like a door panel. It's amazing how the passengers remained calm. Thank the Lord they all made it safely back. The pilots did an awesome job.

Any news on the panel that got blown away? Imagine falling from above....glad all the passengers and crew are all okay, Thank God!

OMG! So happy everyone is safe!!! I was in tears watching this - I can't imagine.

Boeing passengers are the most calm people - they have been practising for a long time .

Who is the "armchair expert" in the last part of the video? That door on the Max-9 is an optional door, and although there is a door opening on the outside of the aircraft, it apparently isn't used by Alaska Airlines and there is a plug in its place. Looks like whatever is used to hold that plug against cabin pressure failed, and the interior trim panels , which are not structural members of the airframe, got sucked out when the exterior plug failed. Emergency exits do not have a seat row directly next to them and there was a seat row where the panel blew out. Luckily it went at a relatively low pressure differential and the decompression wasn't as extreme as it could have been. Time of useful consciousness in a rapid decompression is about 15 minutes at 16,000 feet, so even though the emergency oxygen system activated, there was little danger of hypoxia to the passengers, they were back below 8000 feet in a matter of a couple of minutes. 8000 feet is the normal cabin altitude during flight (equivalent atmospheric pressure) and does not require supplemental oxygen to survive at that altitude. The outrush of pressure when the door failed was enough to make loose objects in the cabin fly out, and had someone been within several feet of the opening and not secured with a seatbelt, they would have been in danger of being pulled out. My experience and training in this scenario is courtesy of 8 years as a USAF aircrew member.

as a pilot i left a particular airline once i found out i was next in line for an upgrade to the max. its a very safe air plane, as long as it stays on ground with the engines OFF!

I'm glad all our passengers are safe

Boeing is digging their own grave, still after the Max catastrophe. I love it.

There is no way anyone could convince me that the 737-max is a safe plane to fly with!

I'd like to know what happened to that piece that blew off.

Finding this door assembly is now the urgent task. Meanwhile if you fly a Max keep your seatbelts tightly fastened and your phone in your pocket

73M may be the most scrutinised airplane in history, but too many instances of corner cutting have emerged, from the design phase up to actual manufacturing. Who knows what else Boeing did/ didn’t do just to reuse this old airframe design

Quality control issue. Let's start with that.

What a bad image for Boeing, right after that amazing Airbus performance at Haneda.

It’s been a wild year for airplanes so far. The collision in Japan and now a blown out door on a literally months old aircraft. Thankfully no injuries or deaths and hopefully it’s not a design flaw!

Looks like it was a location for a door, which was replaced with a panel, so the airline can squeeze in an extra row of seats.

Remember: Aviation, Navigate, and Communicate. The plane is still flying! We're good!👍

Have they located the panel on the ground?

Thank goodness nobody had been seated right there 😮

Are we replacing latches or hinges now?

When you fly ALASKA know it's going to be a 🥶 cold flight.

Is this one of the 737 max planes that were grounded due to plane crashes like 5 or so years ago?

Amazing they were so calm. Glad no one was injured.

Looks like a door blew out. Lucky good luck for the safe landing.

wow, glad to know everyone is ok

Typically, if a critical component, like this, catastrophically fails on a commercial airliner, the entire fleet is grounded for inspection. But now the politics come into play and Leslie Nielsen shows up waving his hands, "Nothing to see here folks." Boeing is on standby.

Be interesting to see what the cause was of the failure. Any cabin debris ejection has potential for tail structure damage due to collision of slowing debris contact with flight surfaces. Also debris could cause damage on ground structures over populated areas. Possible tampering with door closing systems. Too early to tell but entire fleets of aircraft type typically grounded until verification of failure cause. A logistics nightmare for air carriers flying the model.

That was the emergency door exit; did someone accidentally open it? it doesn't look to me like the fuselage was compromise.

That panel looks like a missing door.

It could be a mechanical interlocked failure of that side panel door.

Where did the door/panel land?

My question is, shouldn’t quality testing/inspection have found this flaw before this incident happened? So I think they need to look at the entire process of how these vehicles are finally certified by the FAA air worthy inspection teams, along with the manufacturing processes use to ensure that this could not possibly happen, because there is a fail, safe safety system that supposed to ensure that something like this couldn’t happen in the first place.

It’s not a panel - its a deactivated door.

The interior of the cabin, passengers etc is only part of the story. That door could have taken out the left side tail in a major way, but appears to have missed it.

What happened to the window, where did it end up, anyone found it yet? just asking for a friend.

It has been reported that the aircraft involved in this incident was only two months old.

Good thing the cockpit didn’t fall off.

But the question is... Where did the missing panel land?

So so glad everyone is fine, I can tell you I would need new underwear no matter where I was sitting. Everyone seems so so calm

Is that window/panel a emergency exit behind the Wing?

Thank God that didnt happen at a higher altitude

It is quite obvious that it is a door that blew out, not a panel.

Great job to the passengers for keeping calm!

This does not look like a regular panel, it looks more like the emergency door, or a door that got cover up, you can see that the structure of plane was intact, only that opening that reveal a door.

Poorly made

It could have been worse, but luckily nobody got hurt, everybody was saved and so was the Boeing and 737 Max.

I literally can’t believe nobody was seated next to this or even in center seat. The flight only had a few total unoccupied seats 😮

I think it's important to note, that this is a removable service hatch (Where another door could be added if ordered that way) and was not the result of structural damage to the aircraft. Why did it blow out? Good question! .. Obviously an error, perhaps during assembly? It's a new plane so nobody would have been messing with the plug in maintenance. As a few posters noted also!! . THIS is why you keep your seat belt on until the light goes out.

As someone from Portland, I have to say it must have been the longest 20 minutes ever. That’s one way to be in the here-and-now….

Boeing construction standards 👌👌👌👌

Hopefully Alaska Air will issue parachutes and a briefing on use for the 2 rows of seating next to these plug doors.

this is a brand new plane, first flight 15 Oct 2023 Boeing 737-9 MAX

Just a bit of ducttape and she’ll be in service again

Max is a death trap.

Where did they land?

was it a "panel" or was it one of the emergency exit?

Guess hot glue was a bad idea.

This plane is not safe same old thing with Boeing profit before safety?

It's a plug that fills in what would be an emergency door on higher capacity passenger configurations. From the inside it looks like a regular window and you can sit right beside it. It is held in by four bolts. How this could happen is mind-boggling. This plane was brand new.

Was it a panel or was it one of the emergency exit doors?

Side Panel? That’s a DOOR missing!

Boeing 737 Max is unsafe 😮

Wow. Good video. What if happened at cloud level? 😢 if there is a passenger sitting next to open exit, not sure what would be the survival chance? Keen to know whether it is better to change seat or remain seated?

Here’s a life lesson for Alaska and Japan Airlines “just because an airline is good doesn’t mean that they’re safe”

If not for the recent Japan Airways crash they would have been up and fighting the flight attendants for their luggage. And someone would have jumped out calling the hole fake.

What they often fail to mention on these stories, is where the heck did that piece land? I would imagine it is pretty heavy, falling from 16K at terminal velocity (about 125mph). Someone could have one hell of a headache, yard art, or been killed.

"Dear did you take the dog out?' "Yes, but I have a question, do you know who put that airplane door in our backyard?' "Maybe I should call someone, we do live near the airport." "nah, just put it with the other pieces we find behind the garage."

I'm so old I remember when boing made safe airplanes......

So Boeing is on "standby to assist in the investigation". I hope so, it's their aircraft.

This isn't a " panel ". It's an exit portal. The airline has chosen to not use it as such, but the outline of the portal is clearly visible. At any rate, Alaska Airlines has some explaining to do.

That was not a panel that blew out. It was in fact an emergency exit door on the left side behind the left wing toward the back of the aircraft. Losing a door seems to be a much more survivable scenario than losing a random panel from the fuselage.

This makes Air Canada look ... not so bad! lol

Boeing: “Oops”

Aside from the door, was there anything sucked out?

Glad that everyone is safe.

The quality of work and output has vastly declined over the past few years.

It's a deactivated emergency door 😬

Beautiful window.

Weird, not a single mention about where this large piece of the plane landed or if anyone on the ground was injured.....

Опять B737 MAX ославился! О опять новая проблема! Похоже таки запасной выход вырвало. Уж больно снаружи все ровно. И просто ЧУДО, что никто не пострадал...