hello. and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m michael holmes. a terrifying incident leaves many boeing 737 max 9s temporarily grounded and 177 passengers and crew feeling lucky to be alive. we re actually now waiting for a news briefing from the u.s. national transportation safety board. that s set to begin at any minute, and we will bring it to you live. they ll be discussing what happened on alaska airlines flight 1282 on friday. officials and witnesses say a part of the fuselage called a plug blew off during the plane s ascent leaving a gaping doorway sized hole in the side of the jet while it was an altitude of 16,000 feet. that s around 4,900 meters. incredibly the plane made a successful emergency landing and there were injuries but none of them serious. now, after the alaska airlines emergency, the u.s. federal aviation administration temporarily grounded certain boeing 737 max 9 aircraft operated by u.s. airlines or in u.s. terri
even though this plug is in place or the interior doesn t look like a door at all, that in many cases they can still be accessed from the outside to inspect and check those doors. and there are reports that they had pressurization problems reported on this plane, you know, before this flight. and so that would make one wonder whether the door latching mechanism was somehow defective or not properly shut. in prior crashes that i mentioned one was a turkish airliner, was united. american had one, they had no fatalities. and even the american air force c5a, big, huge plane had a door locking, or ceiling locking malfunction. and that has been the most common problem in the past. but the past is no indication of, you know, what s going to go on in this one. but in the past it was a failure
returned to service. cnn s stephanie elam reports on the wider investigation under way. reporter: after this incident that happened friday night at portland international airport, alaska airlines says that it is going through and checking all of its 737 max 9 aircraft, this after the faa had said they wanted to ground all these of aircraft that were flying until they could be inspected, saying that that take about 4 to 8 hours per aircraft. all of this happening because of what happened friday night with this plane taking off and shortly after take off, maybe 7 minutes into the flight, a part of the fuselage just broke off. and when you look at the images of this, it looks like a door and part of the window. this was not actually used as a door on this particular plane, but it could be configured that way depending on how an airline wanted to use it. so that s the question they have here about how this could this piece could have come apart. obviously for the people on the plane, i
and ininspection. france issued some directives. usually the united states follows that, too. so there s great amount of cooperation among aviation nations. when one issues a warning, the others usually follow it. and going back, explain how these door plugs as they re called work. how are they fitted when it s a plug not a door in? and wouldn t a door, not a plug be more secure or no different? again, that s a great question. she didn t get into this and i m curious to hear this. doors and door plugs can be manufactured in a variety of ways. usually it s a door has to be pulled in and then pushed out to open the door, and the pressurization of the plane holds the door and the door plug in place. so it s the actual pressurization that then fits the door or door plug snuggly
more room. and so with that, you don t need emergency exits at that location. but the manufacturer will manufacture one air frame, and then the components depend on the customer s needs. so in this case it s a plug, it s not an operational door. now, granted you can open it from the outside for inspection, but it s not an operational door, not an operational exit door. in other planes where that same plane might have 215 or 220 passengers, there would be an exit door much like the traditional emergency exits that you would see. in terms of figuring what caused the accident, what are some of the first things that you look at? yeah, you know, i ll provide some of that information tomorrow on what we re going to look at for the investigation. i want to get with some of the