‘Very fortunate’: What helped Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 from turning ‘more problematic’

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – After a door plug blew off of an Alaska Airlines flight in January after taking off from Portland International Airport, one aviation expert says the incident could have been disastrous had the Boeing 737 Max 9 been at a higher altitude and if passengers were unbuckled.

In their preliminary report, released Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board said the four bolts that were missing from the door plug were removed during repairs to the plane’s frame during the manufacturing process — noting evidence suggests the bolts were never replaced before the plane was returned to service.

About six minutes after departure, the recorded cabin pressure dropped from 14.09 to 11.64 pounds per square inch when the plane was around 14,830 feet in altitude, the NTSB report says. The differential pressure was at 5.7 PSI and rapidly decreased to zero PSI a few seconds later, officials said.

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At 16,000 feet, the plane began to rapidly depressurize after the improperly secured door plug blew off the plane.

“If this had happened at a really high altitude it could have been a much more problematic event,” Oregon State University chemistry professor and flight instructor, Vincent Remcho, tells KOIN 6 News.

The NTSB report states “the flight crew said their ears popped, and the captain said his head was pushed into the heads-up display (HUD) and his headset was pushed up, nearly falling off his head. The [first officer] said her headset was completely removed due to the rapid outflow of air from the flight deck. Both flight crew said they immediately donned their oxygen masks. They added that the flight deck door was blown open and that it was very noisy and difficult to communicate.”

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According to Remcho, commercial airline cockpit doors may be designed in such a way to relieve pressure throughout the plane.

The flight crew immediately contacted air traffic control, declared an emergency, and requested a lower altitude, the report says. Officials said the flight was assigned to 10,000 feet before returning to PDX.

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With two flight crewmembers, four cabin crew members, and 171 passengers on board, the report says seven passengers and one flight attendant received minor injuries from the incident.

In a lawsuit filed by 22 passengers alleging negligence against Boeing and Alaska Airlines, some passengers claim they experienced emotional and physical injuries from the depressurization, including severe stress, trauma, and hearing damage.

Remcho says as a result of the missing door plug, passengers could certainly feel ear popping.

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“An example would be if you were to go to the swimming pool, and at the dive end of the pool, swam from the surface to the bottom of the pool, say 12 to 14 feet, the pressure differential that you would feel there would be akin to the kind of pressure differential that we’re talking about here. So, certainly the pressure that you feel in your ears when you go to the higher pressure down in the pool, and then that relief of pressure that you feel when you come back up to the surface of the pool would be what you’d experience in this case as well,” Remcho explained.

“Ear drum rupture, that’s a different thing [compared to ears popping due to pressure change] and of course there are a lot of different case reports in medical journals that would indicate that the tympanic membrane, that ear drum, can withstand a rapid pressure change up to around 5 PSI, but there’s a disclaimer, again, that everyone’s a little bit different. But similar reports have stated that 14 PSI is sufficient, if sudden, to rupture an ear drum,” Remcho furthered. “So, it’s entirely possible that someone could have experienced something more than just that popping feeling in your ear.”

The flight instructor says the incident could have been a disaster if the door plug blew off at a higher altitude and if passengers were unbuckled.

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“Transport category aircraft, airliners, they’re pressurized to provide a higher air density and greater comfort while they’re operating at those high altitudes. Fifteen thousand feet, which is roughly the altitude at which this apparently occurred, is below an altitude that would be considered a cruising altitude for that kind of airliner. So, it’s more of a mid-level altitude, it’s below the limit where pressurization is a necessity, but above an altitude where the federal regulations would require that pilots and passengers use supplemental oxygen or instead to travel in an aircraft that was pressurized. So, those kinds of limits are around 12,500 to 14,000 feet depending on the role of the person that’s affected by this and the kind of flying that’s being done,” Remcho said. “We’re very fortunate that it happened at that lower altitude.”

He added, “Catastrophic events in aviation thankfully, especially commercial aviation, are relatively rare, but there was a case a number of years ago where a passenger was ejected from the airplane through a hole in the fuselage. So, could it have happened, especially if the pressure differential were greater? Yes. Or if someone weren’t buckled and they were adjacent, there’s precedent for that kind of thing happening. So, we’re quite fortunate that people were buckled and that this happened at a lower altitude.”

“I think anytime a passenger is unrestrained, they’re accepting risks that they could have avoided by having been restrained and that’s why it’s so common to have that announcement, that you know, ‘hey, it’s really best to have your seat belts buckled.’ So, yes, I would think that you’re always better off if you’re in that safety restraint,” Remcho said.

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Thankfully, no lives were lost during the incident; however, the report notes some damage within the cabin including damage to two rows of seats, the forward lavatory door, and buckling and displacement of sidewall panels and trim.

Remcho also commends the flight attendant’s response to the incident, noting they are trained for these types of events, adding, “they followed their training and because of that, things came out as good as can be expected.”

“The ramifications in the long-term will be some serious inconvenience and some serious scrutiny, but at the end of the day, we’re fortunate there was no loss of life,” Remcho said.

The NTSB investigation is ongoing.

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