Boeing stock dragged on the Dow Jones industrials early Monday as details continued to emerge regarding the incident that forced a 737 Max 9 aircraft owned by Alaska Airlines to make an unscheduled emergency landing in Portland, Oregon. The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday grounded all Boeing model 737 Max 9 aircraft following the event. Spirit AeroSystems stock plummeted. Alaska Airlines stock traded sharply lower.
Alaska Airlines' scheduled flight 1282 from Portland to Ontario, Calif. experienced what a company news release called an "incident" shortly after take off. The aircraft left Portland just after 5 p.m. PT, reaching an altitude of more than 16,0000 feet, according to tracking website FlightAware.
A Federal Aviation Administration post on 'X' called the incident a "pressurization issue." The F.A.A. said it was investigating the matter. Passenger videos of the flight showed a gaping hole in the side of the jet and pressurization masks deployed.
Air traffic news site LightRadar24 said the "rear mid-cabin exit-door assembly separated" from the airliner. The Seattle Times reported that the rectangular hole in the fuselage "appeared where Boeing fits a plug to seal a door opening that is not used by most airlines."
The aircraft returned to Portland and landed safely at 5:27 p.m. PT with 171 passengers and six crew members. Early reports said that one case of medical transport was ordered by the Portland ground crew.
Alaska Air Grounds Boeing 737 MAX-9 Fleet
A Friday night statement from Chief Executive Ben Minicucci said the airline had immediately grounded its fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft for maintenance inspections. The FAA followed suit on Saturday, ordering "certain Boeing 737 MAX 9" out of service until inspections can be performed.
The order, which the FAA said affected 171 aircraft, requires inspections the FAA says will take four to eight hours per aircraft. An Emergency Airworthiness Directive would be issued related to the National Transportation and Safety Board's investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, the release said.
The MAX-9 is the second largest of the four-model 737 MAX series. It includes an auxiliary fuel tank to keep its 3,550-nautical-mile competitive with the smaller Max 8 model. Boeing prescribes a seating capacity of 178 to 193 passengers for the Max 9 jets.
The two Boeing jets that crashed and killed hundreds in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019 were 737 Max 8 model aircraft. Those crashes were found to be partly due to software issues in the planes, with governments around the world grounding the aircraft until Boeing addressed the problems.
Eyes On Spirit As Details Emerge
Boeing in October agreed to supply millions of dollars to support struggling parts supplier Spirit AeroSystems. Boeing stock, already beat up after the Indonesia and Ethiopian crashes, then by the loss of demand due to the Covid epidemic, was hammered repeatedly over the past two years as quality defects stemming from Spirit had caused ongoing problems for Being's 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner programs, delaying deliveries.
Spirit is responsible for the entire fuselage, including the cockpit, in all Boeing jets, and the entire fuselage for the 737 MAX models, according to the Seattle Times. A Reuters report on Sunday said the Spirit had manufactured and initially installed the panel, but that Boeing played a key role in the completion process.
The blown out body panel was located on the ground, aiding the investigation. Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board Jennifer Homendy said in a Sunday news conference the the aircraft involved in the incident had experienced multiple warnings on previous flights from its auto-pressurization fail light.
Those warnings may or may not be related to Friday's event. But they had been enough to lead Alaska Airlines to restrict the jet from flying to Hawaii, in the event that it might require an emergency landing.
The Alaska Airlines jet involved in Friday's incident was among the company's newest, after entering service in November, according to Flightradar24. The aircraft had logged 145 flights.
Boeing stock, one of the Dow Jones industrials, moved a fraction lower in Friday's after hours trading. Share had ended Friday's session up 1.7%, logging a 4.5% loss for the week. The stock has shown signs of recovery over the past 18 months, breaking out from an 18-week cup base in early December.
Sprit shares had recovered sharply from a September low, posting tight weekly closes just below an August high.
Spirit, Alaska Airlines, Boeing Stock In Motion
Boeing stock dropped 7.5%, the hardest hit among Dow industrial stocks in Monday's premarket action. Spirit veered into a 17% dive. Shares of Alaska Air dropped almost 5%.
Monday's move, if it holds through the open, would put Boeing back below a 243.10 buy point after a breakout from a cup base in early December. Spirit shares had rebounded sharply since news of the cash infusion from Boeing, rallying 116% from a September low through Friday's close.
Alaska Airlines stock has been struggling to recover, after a steep July through October slide.
