Weeks after a door panel blew off of one of its Boeing 737 Max 9 jets mid-flight, Alaska Airlines has started to return some of the planes to service after each has been inspected. The airline recently gave “CBS Mornings” an exclusive up-close look at the effort to return the planes to service as mechanics evaluate the planes’ door panels and the bolts holding them in place. Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the incident on Alaska Airlines flight 1282, as the Federal Aviation Administration conducts its own investigation into Boeing.
Alaska Airlines grounded their 65 Max 9 planes preemptively before the FAA ordered a temporary grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max 9 model after one of the planes, flying for Alaska Airlines, suffered a blowout in the middle of a trip from Oregon to California. One of the doors on the aircraft detached while the plane was in the air on Jan. 5, forcing an emergency landing in Portland and prompting “immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 Max 9 planes,” the FAA said at the time.