Door blew our midair Alaskan airlines.

a reply to: quintessentone

And those incidents are being dealt with, and have nothing to do with this. That’s like saying Ford recalling the Mustang for back up camera problems is the same as Ford recalling F150s for axle problems, because both are Ford. Yes Spirit is having issues, all unrelated and being dealt with.

At that altitude, the shirt was pulled off by wind blast. A child being held tightly, as they should be, would be able to be held on to.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Wouldn’t these bolts be either, castle nut & cotter, drilled and safety wired or self locking nut? Not saying those methods are infallible but what is the probability of all the bolts deciding to go south?

a reply to: KrustyKrab

It's a mix of bolt types.



There are four bolts that are designed to keep the plug from moving up and down. Without them (which they appear to be missing from the plug that was found) the door can move several inches up, which takes the pressure off the stop pads and allows the door to rotate slightly, which allows it to be removed for maintenance.



The stop pads put pressure on each other (as the NTSB put it, they're high fiving) to keep the plug in place. The bolt openings are oval shaped to allow the vertical movement of the plug. To remove it, maintenance removes the four bolts, lift the plug and rotate it inward at the top. That gives them the clearance to then slide it out. My best guess is that the four bolts to stop the vertical movement were not tightened properly, and worked loose, which combined with the loose bolts on the inside, allowed the plug to lift and get pulled out by the airflow down the side of the fuselage.

a reply to: Zaphod58

You just can't get the staff these days Zaph even for the simplistic of jobs ikyn .

I recently had to get a electrician in to a job that had me scratching my head as to what was going on in a simple change of light fitting on my ceiling , normally we have a 3 wire system , which a idiot can do , it is hardly as complex as a car system .

It took 2 of them 1.5 hours to figure out the ring circuit of wires that were involved 11 in total , he broke my switch on the wall for some reason , and put up a new light switch on the ceiling that gave way the other day when I took it down to paint the ceiling, the mupets had used plasterboard /drywall screws to put it back up and not the original bolts in the conduit piping of older houses .

I am going to phone them up to complain and I really really do hope they send the same dude / idiot to fix it and when my front door closes he will find out why I was giving the orders on a building site at 21 yo .

And a lot of these master craftsmen who I was giving the orders to had trained me .

Pray for his soul Zaph because I ain't taking prisoners these days

a reply to: Zaphod58

Ah okay, the pics helped, thx. I’d say your theory sounds most likely.

Six of eight fasteners on the right side plug of the incident aircraft were found loose during assembly, and were tightened.

theaircurrent.com...

How many beans are they really saving by not actually putting in the emergency exit door in the first place?

How much weight are they saving, 5 lbs?

Costs over regulations and safety, nice.

Lucky it didn’t take out that horizontal stab.

a reply to: 38181

They're saving a lot actually. A plug weighs 64 pounds, and doesn't require safety equipment. An emergency exit door weighs between 300-500 pounds. And exit doors have to have their safety equipment installed, and inspected regularly. If you activate those two doors you also need an extra flight attendant to operate them. And you have to change the seat configuration, so you lose seats.

Delete

Captain Sully Sullenberger's opinion on Boeing's being and keeping 'up to standards'.

Door plug investigation update:

"NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the accident investigator still did not know what went wrong, but was casting a wide net for potential issues, and said it would be looking at numerous records related to the door plug.

Homendy said the door plug on the MAX 9 was produced by a Spirit facility in Malaysia.

The NTSB is looking at the door plug transfer from Malaysia to Wichita, Kansas, and then onto the fuselage, along with the shipment by rail to Boeing's Renton, Washington, facility and the planemaker's "quality assurance" work, she said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell said she plans to hold a hearing on the issue and wants to make sure the FAA is ensuring strong oversight of Boeing. She had pressed the FAA to conduct an audit of Boeing safety issues."

www.reuters.com...

Clearly a little more oversight is needed.

a reply to: Solvedit

Which is already being put into place. A retired admiral has been appointed quality supervisor, and the airlines will have people overseeing construction of their aircraft on the production line.

Recent news: Tip; don't sit near any doors on this type of plane.

A second plane has been dragged into the Boeing 737 Max 9 saga as the Federal Aviation Administration recommended a new set of inspections on Sunday.

The Boeing 737-900ER uses the same door-plug design as the Max 9, which has come under scrutiny since the Alaska Airlines blowout on January 5.

The Max 9 remains grounded as airlines continue inspections, although the 737-900ER isn't grounded.

The fact that the FAA is issuing a safety alert based on Boeing's design suggests more unease around the American manufacturer.

According to Reuters, the vast majority of 737-900ER jets with a door plug are operated by three US carriers: United, Alaska, and Delta Air Lines.

www.businessinsider.com...

a reply to: quintessentone

And the fact that the FAA isn’t grounding the -900 proves that this is political theater. They aren’t even requiring the inspection, they are merely recommending it.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: quintessentone

And the fact that the FAA isn’t grounding the -900 proves that this is political theater. They aren’t even requiring the inspection, they are merely recommending it.

Tip repeated: Don't sit near any doors on that type of plane.

a reply to: quintessentone

Except it isn't an exit. You won't know where it is from choosing your seat, unless you know the plane well. And the Alaska plug is the first in over 20 years to fail. That's one failure, in probably several million flights.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: quintessentone

Except it isn't an exit. You won't know where it is from choosing your seat, unless you know the plane well. And the Alaska plug is the first in over 20 years to fail. That's one failure, in probably several million flights.

That type of failure is one too many, IMO.

a reply to: quintessentone

You live in a bubble wrap house and barely go outside don’t you. There is no such thing as perfect when people are involved.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: quintessentone

You live in a bubble wrap house and barely go outside don’t you. There is no such thing as perfect when people are involved.

A large corporation is not people it's employs people to assist in achieving it's primary goal...money. Money is King.

I go outside way too much for my liking and see the world for what it truly is.

ETA:

I guess customer complaints are doing some good the article link below shows redesigned cabins that may become a reality. At the very least in the pic in the link one could negotiate with one's neigbour to take turns stretching out on the table. lol

www.cnbc.com...

See Zaphod, complaining sometimes works. If one never lets the company know there are issues then nothing ever changes. But this thread isn't about customer comfort it's about customer peace of mind regarding safety.