'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!

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!

Top NTSB official goes on CNN, then busts narrative blaming Trump for East Palestine train derailment



Democrats and the White House are blaming former President Donald Trump for the East Palestine train derailment, accusing him of revoking regulations they say would have prevented the disaster.

But Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, made clear on Thursday that narrative is all bark and no bite.

What are the claims?

The narrative posits that Trump bears responsibility for the East Palestine train derailment because his administration rolled back regulations that critics now say would have prevented the train derailment and subsequent environmental disaster.

Specifically, critics say, for example, that electronically controlled pneumatic brakes could have prevented the derailment. The Obama administration issued the rule, and it was rolled back under Trump.

But what did Homendy say?

The top NTSB official told CNN anchor Jake Tapper unequivocally that ECP brakes would not have prevented the East Palestine train derailment.

"The NTSB has looked at electronically controlled pneumatic braking for a number of years, and we did some testing as well. Certainly, it would improve safety. But for this investigation and for this derailment, ECP brakes would not have prevented the derailment," she said.

"The wheel bearing failed on car number 23. Even with ECP brakes, the derailment would have occurred," she explained.

Tapper followed up by asking if there is "any obvious rule change" that would have prevented the derailment. But again, critics of Trump would be disappointed in Homendy's answer.

"It's too early to tell," she told Tapper. "In our analysis phase of the investigation, we'll look at just that. We'll look at what could have prevented this terrible tragedy. And it could be regulation changes. It could be recommendations to Norfolk Southern, to the Department of Transportation, or to rail car manufacturers, or to emergency responders."

\u201cThe National Transportation Safety Board releases its preliminary report on the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. @NTSB Chief Jennifer Homendy explains why she calls the wreck \u201c100 percent preventable.\u201d\u201d
— The Lead CNN (@The Lead CNN) 1677194551

It is true that, under Trump, the DOT withdrew the rule on ECP brakes for trains carrying hazardous materials. However, as Politico explained, that happened only after intervention from Congress.

That withdrawal, however, stemmed from intervention by Congress, which required regulators to put the rule through a more stringent cost-benefit analysis after the Obama administration had issued the regulation. The rule ultimately failed that analysis.

Last week, Homendy first explained why ECP brakes and the withdrawn rule would not have prevented the derailment.

"The ECP braking rule would’ve applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS. The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars," she wrote on Twitter.

"This means even if the rule had gone into effect, this train wouldn't have had ECP brakes," she explained.

\u201cThe ECP braking rule would\u2019ve applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS. The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars.\u201d
— Jennifer Homendy (@Jennifer Homendy) 1676594028

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