Cancellations, delays rack up at Sea-Tac after Friday’s midair blowout on Alaska flight
Cancellations and delays continued to rack up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Monday, following Friday’s terrifying incident where a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines flight minutes after taking off from Portland.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has grounded all Boeing 737 MAX 9s involved until they are all declared safe, leaving thousands of travelers stranded.
“We started in Maui and we were supposed to leave last night at 5:30, then they switched it to Honolulu,” traveler Aimie Mattinson told us. “So instead of leaving at 5:30 we left at 9:30, got here at 4:30, my flight to Salt Lake City was canceled.”
By the end of the morning on Monday, Flight Aware was showing over 80 cancellations and 50 delays out of Sea-Tac Airport for Alaska Airlines.
Mattinson says it’s been a nightmare figuring things out.
“They aren’t really being very helpful, no food vouchers, no place to stay, and then just said we could sit in Starbucks for 12 hours,” said Mattinson.
Susan Keim says she’s been trying to get back home to Pittsburgh since Saturday.
“As we were walking out the door to go to the airport the flight was canceled, and I’m out of medication,” said Keim.
Both Mattinson and Keim say what happened on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 is frightening, but it won’t stop them from getting on another plane.
“It seemed incredulous but I’m not afraid to fly,” said Keim. “If it happened, it happened.”
“I’m glad everybody was OK, and they are doing the right thing by grounding the planes, but it disrupts a lot of people,” said Mattinson.
