Left-wing editor cries 'Christian nationalism' after flight attendant wishes her 'blessed' night — and backlash is brutal



A left-wing editor said it was evidence of "creeping Christian nationalism" after a flight attendant wished her a "blessed" night — and commenters on X reacted to the journalist's complaint with a barrage of scorn.

Mother Jones editor in chief Clara Jeffery wrote on X, "Creeping Christian nationalism alert: @AlaskaAir flight attendant just wished us a 'blessed' night as we landed in SFO (!) to groans. Other adjectives that would have sufficed: great, awesome, fabulous, amazing, fantastic… As my rowmate said, 'this ain’t Montgomery, sweetie,'" according to various media outlets.

'You have issues greater than a flight attendant’s well wishes.'

It appears Jeffery deleted her controversial X post, which reportedly went live Friday night after her arrival in San Francisco — but plenty of notable observers read it and didn't like it one bit.

Kamala Harris fundraiser Armand Domalewski replied to Jeffery: "Respectfully, I’m a pretty left leaning guy, and I wish folks a blessed day fairly often. It’s just a nice thing to say."

Jeffery shot back: "Eh. It’s a matter of respect for the audience before you. Respecting their space and norms and wishes. Dominant cultures always feel they have a right to enforce their norms and intents. And…way off @AlaskaAir’s brand."

With that, Domalewski smartly retorted, "As a practicing Catholic I don’t feel like being publicly Christian is really the dominant culture here in SF lol."

Others reacted similarly:

— (@)
— (@)
— (@)
— (@)
— (@)
— (@)
— (@)
— (@)
— (@)

Others pointed out that Jeffery herself has used the term "bless" in the past.

Jeffery so far hasn't deleted a pushback post apparently against the derision her "creeping Christian nationalism" statement elicited; not surprisingly, she specifically notes those of the right-wing persuasion:

— (@)

"The thing about being dragged by rw 'alphas' is that they are all so so so dumb," she said.

But Jeffery promptly got dragged yet again as her apparent pushback post has been massively ratioed as of Monday morning with just over 200 likes and nearly 1,000 comments. Here are some of them:

  • "I hate to break it to you sweetie pie, but relatively few of those dragging you are [right wing]. So far it has been mostly [left wing] and centrists and really every tribe on the planet," one commenter observed. "Could be the real [right-wing] 'alphas' think the wicked witch of Mother Jones is just beneath them. Bless your heart."
  • "Looks like you're being dragged by just about everyone, have a blessed day!" another declared.
  • "Maybe log off for a couple years," another suggested.
  • "Have a blessed day," one commenter said.
  • "Clinical psychopaths are quite good at portraying themselves as victims," another noted. "Maybe you should look into that, psycho."
  • "Have you thought that maybe YOU’RE the problem? I mean, look at the comments," another wrote. "Maybe some self reflection would be a good thing for you."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

'I'm sure we've lost passengers': Alaska Airlines flight attendants detail terrifying panel blowout incident



The Alaska Airlines flight attendants, who were on Flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, on January 5 when a door panel flew off the aircraft mid-flight, recently shared details of their experience, Fox Business reported.

The National Transportation Safety Board held a hearing on Tuesday about the terrifying incident involving the Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplane that was carrying 171 passengers and six crew members.

'Safety culture needs a lot of work.'

The aircraft ultimately landed safely at Portland International Airport; however, the incident remains under investigation. Eight passengers reported minor injuries.

Interviews conducted with the flight attendants onboard the aircraft that day were shared at Tuesday's hearing.

According to officials, one attendant thought that some passengers had been sucked out of the airplane after she saw the door panel was missing and noticed five empty seats around it.

The attendant testified, "I said there is a hole in the plane, in the back of the plane, and I'm sure we've lost passengers."

Additionally, the employee expressed concern about an unaccompanied child who was on the aircraft.

"All I could think of was that he was sitting there, and he was too small to reach the mask and was probably really scared," the flight attendant said.

Another flight attendant on the plane told officials, "I think I was able to (blurt) out, 'I think we have a hole, and we might've lost passengers.' And then it seemed like I just lost contact. I tried calling back, tried speaking loudly into the phone. I couldn't hear anything."

"Probably the scariest thing was I didn't have exact communication with my flight deck, and at first I didn't know if the decompression was in the front, if we have pilots, and not being able to fully communicate with the back," the second flight attendant remarked.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy stated Tuesday that neither the board nor Boeing has been able to determine who was responsible for previously removing the door plug on the jet to perform maintenance work before it was reinstalled and delivered to Alaska Airlines.

According to Homendy, the board has not been able to speak with the door plug team manager, who may have been one of the individuals responsible for inspecting the panel before it was delivered to Alaska Airlines with all four bolts missing.

"The safety culture needs a lot of work (at Boeing)," Homendy said. "It is not there from the evidence itself, from what you see in the interviews. There's not a lot of trust, there's a lot of distrust within the workforce."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

DOJ to offer Boeing plea agreement amid potential fraud charges — crash victims' families slam 'sweetheart' deal



The Department of Justice is preparing to offer Boeing a plea deal that would require the company to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration in connection with two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people, Reuters reported.

The DOJ claims that Boeing violated a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement with the department, a source told the news outlet. As part of the agreement, a criminal charge against Boeing was dropped, and the company was asked to revise its compliance practices and submit to routine reporting. The aerospace company also agreed to pay $2.5 billion to end the investigation.

In May, the DOJ accused Boeing of violating the terms of the agreement, stating that it failed to "design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations."

Boeing disagreed with the DOJ's findings, claiming it has "honored the terms" of the agreement.

The relatives of those killed in the two crashes were briefed on the proposed settlement on Sunday. According to their attorney, they are urging U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor to reject what they have called a "sweetheart" deal for Boeing.

Paul Cassell, a lawyer representing the relatives, said, "The Justice Department is preparing to offer Boeing another sweetheart plea deal."

"The families will strenuously object to this plea deal," Cassell noted.

The plea deal would require the company to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud the FAA. Boeing would have to pay half of a $487.2 million penalty, with prosecutors allowing the company to receive credit for previous settlement payments. Additionally, Boeing would have to meet with the relatives and submit to third-party audits for three years.

Boeing and the DOJ declined a request for comment, Reuters reported.

Anything else?

Boeing faced further scrutiny in January after one of its aircraft experienced a mid-flight door panel blowout. A preliminary U.S. National Transportation Safety Board report found that the Alaska Airlines plane may have left the Boeing factory without the key bolts needed to secure the panels in place. The NTSB's investigation discovered that Spirit AeroSystems, a fuselage maker, had performed maintenance work on the aircraft before delivering it to the airline. The maintenance required the door panel to be removed and reinstalled.

On Monday, Boeing announced that it plans to buy back Spirit AeroSystems, its former subsidiary. The company aims to improve safety and quality control at the struggling company. Boeing agreed to pay $37.25 per share for a value of $4.7 billion.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Alaska Airlines receives ‘initial’ $160M from Boeing after mid-flight panel blowout — additional compensation ‘expected’



Boeing paid Alaska Airlines $160 million following the mid-flight door panel blowout incident that occurred earlier this year, the airline stated on Thursday.

In a recent United States Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Alaska Airlines reported that Boeing provided the "initial compensation ... to address the financial damages incurred as a result of Flight 1282 and the 737-9 MAX groundings."

In January, Flight 1282 experienced a mid-air door panel blowout that forced the plane to make an emergency landing. Multiple investigations were launched as a result of the incident. The Federal Aviation Administration briefly grounded 171 Max 9 airplanes while inspections were underway, causing thousands of flight cancelations.

A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board found that all four bolts designed to secure the panel in place were missing from the aircraft. Records revealed that before the plane was delivered to Alaska Airlines, it underwent rivet repairs that required the panel to be temporarily removed and reinstalled upon completion. The repair work was completed by Spirit AeroSystems, a former Boeing subsidiary, before the aircraft was returned to Boeing's Renton, Washington, facility.

The NTSB continues to investigate the incident. The Department of Justice also launched its own investigation.

Alaska Airlines' SEC filing stated that the company lost approximately $160 million in the first quarter of 2024 due to the mandatory grounding of some of its Boeing planes.

"As a result of the Flight 1282 accident and the Boeing 737-9 MAX grounding, we lost approximately $160 million in Q1 pretax profit, primarily comprising lost revenues, costs due to irregular operations, and costs to restore our fleet to operating service," the airline wrote.

Boeing paid Alaska Airlines the compensation in cash during the first quarter.

"This cash payment is equivalent to the lost profits resulting from the accident and grounding in Q1 2024. Additional compensation is expected to be provided beyond Q1, the complete terms of which are confidential," it added.

Boeing referred to statements made last month by CFO Brian West when contacted for comment, ABC News reported. During the Bank of America Industrials Conference, West remarked that there will be "customer consideration that is going to manifest itself in the quarter."

"We've got to take care of that and we're well down the road to do that. And we continue to stand behind our customers with that responsibility," West added.

The mid-flight panel blowout ignited a safety scandal for Boeing, prompting a management shake-up. In February, Boeing removed Ed Clark, the head of its 737 Max program. In March, it announced that CEO Dave Calhoun would leave the company at the end of the year. Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal announced his immediate retirement last month. Larry Kellner, board chairman, is set to resign and not seek re-election in May.

Last week, Calhoun stated, "The eyes of the world are on us, and I know that we will come through this moment a better company."

"We will remain squarely focused on completing the work we have done together to return our company to stability after the extraordinary challenges of the past five years, with safety and quality at the forefront of everything that we do," he said.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Alaska Airlines flight forced to turn around after Boeing 737 jet sink floods cabin with water



An Alaska Airlines flight that was on its way from Hawaii to Alaska turned around after a bathroom on the flight flooded the aisles of the Boeing 737 Max 9 jet with water, according to Alaska News Source.

The incident is the most recent in a slew of issues with Boeing flights over the last few months.

The flight from Honolulu to Anchorage departed after 10:00 p.m. Friday night and was in the air for just 90 minutes when the front bathroom suddenly began to malfunction, ultimately leading to flooding in the aisle of the aircraft.

Instead of continuing the six-hour flight to Alaska, the captain of Alaska Airlines flight 828 decided to turn back to Hawaii to have the problem resolved. Footage of the incident was posted to YouTube, where flight attendants can be seen trying to soak up as much water as possible with paper towels and blankets.

Dustin Parker — a passenger on the flight — said that "there was probably two to four inches of standing water that swooshed out as soon as you opened that front door of the lavatory."

"I would say an hour and a half into the flight is when we noticed the water and it was significant. The entire floorboards of that airplane were completely wet."

The issue is believed to have originated from the bathroom sink, not the toilet, according to the Daily Mail. A flight map revealed that the flight was in the air for almost two-and-a-half hours before safely landing back in Hawaii at 12:30 a.m.

Reports stated that the passengers were rebooked on other flights because there was no other plane at the airport to take them back to Anchorage.

The airline said the following in a statement: "We apologize to our guests for the inconvenience this caused and commend the crew for their actions to ensure the well-being and comfort of our guests."

Alaska Airlines made headlines at the beginning of the year after a door plug blew out on a Boeing 737 Max 9 — the same model of plane that the flooding occurred in. The Department of Justice opened an investigation into Boeing following the door issue.

Boeing has been at the center of scandals over the past few years, including the mysterious death of John Barnett, who was in the process of giving testimony about quality checks for Boeing's aircraft earlier this year. While Barnett's death has been ruled a suicide, some are skeptical of this conclusion.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Texas AG Paxton demands info on DEI practices as part of new probe into Boeing parts supplier



Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) launched an investigation into Spirit AeroSystems, a Boeing parts supplier, over “reoccurring issues with certain airplane parts,” according to a Sunday press release from the AG’s office.

Spirit AeroSystems, a former Boeing subsidiary, manufactures the fuselages for Boeing’s 737 airplanes, the same aircraft that experienced a mid-flight door panel blowout earlier this year that led to a massive safety scandal.

“On certain models of the 737, apparent manufacturing defects have led to numerous concerning or dangerous incidents, some of which occurred in-air,” the office’s press release read.

As a part of the newly launched investigation, Paxton is requesting “a variety of documents relevant to manufacturing defects” from Spirit.

“The company must release documents related to its diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’) commitments and whether those commitments are unlawful or are compromising the company’s manufacturing processes,” the AG’s office stated.

The AG’s Request to Examine letter demands that Spirit produce various documents, including the company’s communications with investors and Boeing regarding the “Mis-Drilled Aft Pressure Bulkhead Holes Defect in Spirit’s products.”

The company also must turn over meeting notes concerning its “Global Diversity & Inclusion Council(s)” and documents it uses to “substantiate its claim that a diverse workplace improves product quality and/or ‘enhance[s] performance’ and/or ‘helps [Spirit] … make better decisions.’

Paxton also requested the personnel file for Joshua Dean, the first whistleblower to sound the alarm on Spirit’s alleged quality control issues. Dean was fired last year for allegedly failing to conduct inspections, the Seattle Times reported. The AG is seeking information and documents concerning Dean’s termination.

Paxton said, “The potential risks associated with certain airplane models are deeply concerning and potentially life-threatening to Texans.”

“I will hold any company responsible if they fail to maintain the standards required by the law and will do everything in my power to ensure manufacturers take passenger safety seriously,” he noted.

As a result of Boeing’s safety scandal following the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 incident in January, the company announced a management shake-up. In February, Boeing removed Ed Clark, the head of its 737 Max program. CEO Dave Calhoun will leave the company at the end of the year, Boeing announced in March. At the same time, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal announced his immediate retirement. Larry Kellner, board chairman, is set to resign and not seek re-election in May.

The National Transportation Safety Board told the Senate Commerce Committee in March that Boeing was “unable to find records” for repairs made to the airplane that experienced the mid-flight panel blowout. The aircraft underwent rivet repairs before it was delivered to Alaska Airlines. Spirit reportedly conducted the repairs, which required the door panel to be temporarily removed and reinstalled upon completion. The agency’s preliminary report found that the door panel was missing all four bolts designed to hold it in place.

Spirit did not respond to a request for comment from Fox Business.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Boeing CEO, top executives to step down amid safety scandal



Boeing announced that CEO Dave Calhoun and other top executives will step down as part of a management shake-up prompted by safety and quality concerns over a mid-flight door panel blowout earlier this year, CNBC News reported.

Calhoun told Boeing employees on Monday that he would leave the company at the end of 2024.

"As you all know, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident was a watershed moment for Boeing," Calhoun wrote. "We must continue to respond to this accident with humility and complete transparency. We also must inculcate a total commitment to safety and quality at every level of our company."

"The eyes of the world are on us, and I know we will come through this moment a better company, building on all the learnings we accumulated as we worked together to rebuild Boeing over the last number of years," Calhoun added.

He told CNBC that the decision to step down was "100%" his own.

Calhoun took over the position in January 2020 after two plane crashes — one in 2018 and another in 2019 — prompted the company's board to fire his predecessor, Dennis A. Muilenburg. The crashes, which killed all on board, were caused by issues with the planes' flight stabilization feature.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal also retired from the company, effective immediately, amid the management overhaul. He has been replaced by Stephanie Pope, Boeing's chief operating officer.

Additionally, the chairman of the board, Larry Kellner, will resign and not seek reelection in May. Steve Mollenkopf, a Boeing director, will replace Kellner and lead the board in selecting a new CEO.

In February, Deal told NBC News that the manufacturer had removed Ed Clark, the head of its 737 Max program. Clark managed Boeing's Renton, Washington, facility where the assembly of the Alaska Airlines plane involved in the January mid-flight panel blowout was assembled. At the time, Deal called the management reshuffling part of Boeing's "enhanced focus on ensuring that every airplane we deliver meets or exceeds all quality and safety requirements."

The National Transportation Safety Board informed the Senate Commerce Committee earlier this month that Boeing is "unable to find records" for repairs made to the airplane that experienced the panel blowout. Before delivering the aircraft to Alaska Airlines, the plane underwent rivet repairs, which required the door panel to be temporarily removed.

"To date, we still do not know who performed the work to open, reinstall, and close the door plug on the accident aircraft," NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy wrote in a letter to senators. "Boeing has informed us that they are unable to find the records documenting this work."

Boeing has repeatedly stated that it is cooperating with the NTSB's investigation into the incident.

"With respect to documentation, if the door plug removal was undocumented there would be no documentation to share," Boeing said.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Boeing is ‘unable to find records’ for repairs made to Alaska Airlines plane — security footage ‘overwritten’: NTSB



Boeing is “unable to find records” for the repairs made to the Alaska Airlines plane that experienced a mid-flight exit door panel blowout earlier this year, the National Transportation Safety Board told the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday, the New York Post reported.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy wrote a letter to Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) confirming that Boeing had failed to provide documentation for the September work to the aircraft, which involved removing and reinstalling the door plug to perform rivet repairs.

“To date, we still do not know who performed the work to open, reinstall, and close the door plug on the accident aircraft,” Homendy wrote. “Boeing has informed us that they are unable to find the records documenting this work.”

In addition to failing to provide records of the repairs, the airplane manufacturer also says that the security camera footage from its facility in Renton, Washington, where the rivet work took place, has been erased, according to the NTSB.

“A verbal request was made by our investigators for security camera footage to help obtain this information; however, they were informed the footage was overwritten,” Homendy added.

Homendy explained that the NTSB has been unable to speak with the facility’s door crew manager because, at the advice of his attorney, he cannot provide a statement “due to medical issues.” She noted that the lack of records and security footage would further complicate the government agency’s investigation into the incident.

“Boeing gave NTSB names of individuals who may provide insight regarding the work performed to open, reinstall, and close the door plug in September 2023,” she noted.

Homendy stated that she called Boeing Chief Executive Officer David Calhoun to request the names of all the employees who performed the door plug work.

“He stated he was unable to provide that information and maintained that Boeing has no records of the work being performed,” her letter to the senators read.

Boeing said in a statement last week that it has cooperated with the NTSB’s requests for information regarding the ongoing investigation. The company also implied that it lacked documentation for the September repair work.

“With respect to documentation, if the door plug removal was undocumented there would be no documentation to share,” Boeing stated.

Repair records must be retained in the event documentation needs to be provided to auditors and investigators, according to regulatory requirements.

The NTSB’s preliminary report revealed that the exit door plug may have been missing all four bolts that secured it in place before the aircraft was delivered to Alaska Airlines.

“I have become increasingly concerned that the focus on the names of individual front-line workers will negatively impact our investigation and discourage such Boeing employees from providing NTSB with information relevant to this investigation,” Homendy told the senators, noting that the agency is not seeking the names of the employees for punitive purposes.

Boeing explained that the security footage that captured the repair work was overwritten because the facility’s camera systems maintain footage on a rolling 30-day basis.

“We will continue supporting this investigation in the transparent and proactive fashion we have supported all regulatory inquiries into this accident. We have worked hard to honor the rules about the release of investigative information in an environment of intense interest from our employees, customers, and other stakeholders, and we will continue our efforts to do so,” Boeing said in a statement, the Post reported.

The Alaska Airlines plane that experienced the panel blowout, which forced the pilots to make an emergency landing, was scheduled for maintenance later that same evening, according to the New York Times.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Boeing fails 33 FAA product audits following mid-flight panel blowout: Report



Boeing failed 33 of the Federal Aviation Administration’s 89 product audits that were recently conducted as a result of a mid-flight panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight in January, according to the New York Times.

An FAA slide presentation obtained by the Times reportedly revealed that a six-week audit conducted by the federal agency found several problems with Boeing’s production of its 737 Max airplanes. The FAA stated that it discovered “multiple instances” in which Boeing and its former subsidiary, Spirit AeroSystems, failed to comply with quality-control standards.

The presentation indicated that of the 89 product audits, Boeing passed 56 and failed 33. The FAA reportedly found 97 instances of alleged noncompliance.

Spirit AeroSystems also underwent 13 product audits concerning its production of the 737 Max fuselage. According to the Times’ review of the FAA’s presentation, the company failed seven audits and passed six. Additionally, Spirit reportedly failed an audit that dealt with the installation of the door plug, the component that blew off mid-air during an Alaska Airlines flight earlier this year. Additionally, the agency found that Boeing failed to check the aircraft’s door plug.

The federal agency stated that it observed one Spirit mechanic using a hotel key card to inspect a door seal and another applying liquid dish soap “as a lubricant” to a door seal. The FAA noted that the methods were “not identified/documented/called-out in the production order.” The agency added that instructions provided to the workers were “vague and unclear on what specifications/actions are to be followed or recorded by the mechanic.”

Many of the issues the FAA’s 20 auditors discovered were related to a failure to follow an “approved manufacturing process, procedure or instruction,” the presentation stated.

The FAA interviewed six Boeing engineers to assess their understanding of the company’s quality-control process. According to the presentation, the engineers received an average score of just 58%.

A spokesperson for Spirit told the Times that the company was “reviewing all identified nonconformities for corrective action.”

“Meanwhile, we continue multiple efforts undertaken to improve our safety and quality programs,” Joe Buccino, a spokesperson for Spirit, said. “These improvements focus on human factors and other steps to minimize nonconformities.”

In a statement to the news outlet, Boeing spokesperson Jessica Kowal said the airplane manufacturer continued “to implement immediate changes and develop a comprehensive action plan to strengthen safety and quality, and build the confidence of our customers and their passengers.”

The FAA told the Times it could not release additional details while its investigation into Boeing remained ongoing. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Department of Justice are also investigating the airplane manufacturer.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Alaska Airlines passengers sue carrier, Boeing for $1 billion over mid-flight panel blowout



Three Alaska Airlines passengers filed a lawsuit against the airline carrier and Boeing for $1 billion over the mid-flight panel blowout incident that occurred early this year.

In January, an Alaska Airlines flight from Oregon to California was forced to make an emergency landing after an exit door panel blew out.

In a February press release, Jonathan W. Johnson LLC, an aviation legal firm based in Atlanta, stated that three individuals on the terrifying flight recently lodged a lawsuit against the airline and Boeing.

The complaint, filed by the law firm on behalf of Kyle Rinker, Amanda Strickland, and Kevin Kwok, claimed the incident was an "avoidable accident that put hundreds of innocent lives in danger."

"Further inspections should have been made before the aircraft was placed in service. It seeks to hold Boeing accountable for its negligence which had caused extreme panic, fear, and post-traumatic stress. This experience jeopardized the lives of the 174 passengers and 6 crew members that were on board. For those reasons, the lawsuit seeks substantial punitive damages from Boeing for what was a preventable incident and because the defects in manufacturing impacted numerous other aircraft and threatened the lives of the passengers on all Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft, which were all grounded by the FAA following the incident," the legal firm stated.

The lawsuit, which seeks both compensatory and punitive damages, claimed that "the frightful, death-threatening failure of the Boeing aircraft" caused the three passengers "severe mental, emotional, and psychological injuries, including post-traumatic stress, and physical injuries," CBS News reported. A sudden pressure change "caused some passengers' ears to bleed," it added.

While the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board's review is still underway, a preliminary report released in February found that the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane may have left the factory without the bolts necessary to secure the exit door panel in place. The report noted that the door is designed to be held shut by four bolts and 12 "stop fittings."

After completing an extensive review, the Federal Aviation Administration's expert panel members found "a disconnection between Boeing's senior management and other members of the organization on safety culture." The panel's report claimed there were "gaps" in Boeing's safety, including "a lack of awareness of safety-related metrics at all levels of the organization."

Boeing is already facing a class-action lawsuit filed by the flight's passengers that claims the blowout "physically injured some passengers and emotionally traumatized most if not all on board."

The aircraft manufacturer's shareholders also filed a complaint against the company, stating that its "serious safety lapses" and "poor quality control" were to blame for the January mid-air blowout.

Alaska Airlines told CBS News that it cannot comment on pending litigation. Boeing told the news outlet that it did not "have anything to add."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!