Alaska Airlines finds ‘loose bolts on many’ of its Boeing planes following in-house inspection, CEO says

Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci told NBC News Tuesday that the airline found “loose bolts on many” of its Boeing planes following an in-house inspection.

Earlier this month, an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland International Airport to Ontario, California, was forced to make an emergency landing after a panel on the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane blew out mid-flight, Blaze News previously reported. The plane was transporting 171 passengers and six crew members.

Miraculously, no one was seated next to the panel. Minicucci noted that there were only seven open seats on the aircraft at the time of the incident.

“We had a guardian angel, honestly, on that airplane,” Minicucci told NBC News.

As a result of the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all Boeing Max 9 airplanes. The agency is conducting a safety investigation and an audit of Boeing’s production line and suppliers.

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker told CNBC that the agency is “visually inspecting the aircraft” as it goes through Boeing’s factory to ensure quality control.

“We’re shifting from more of an audit approach to a direct inspection approach,” Whitaker remarked.

Following recent in-house inspections, Alaska Airlines found many of its planes had loose bolts.

“We found some loose bolts on many of our Max 9s,” Minicucci stated. “Those are things that are going to be rectified through the inspection process.”

“I’m more than frustrated and disappointed,” he continued. “I am angry. This happened to Alaska Airlines. It happened to our guests and happened to our people. And — my demand on Boeing is what are they going to do to improve their quality programs in-house.”

Alaska Airlines is sending auditors to examine Boeing’s quality control systems, Minicucci noted.

“I knew that this was an issue out of the [Boeing] factory,” he added. “And it’s clear to me that we received an airplane from Boeing with a faulty door. Now the [National Transportation Safety Board] investigation is going to figure out why that was a faulty door, whether it was bad installation, missing hardware, a manufacturing issue, but there’s no doubt that Alaska received an airplane off the production line with a faulty door.”

United Airlines has also found loose bolts on its Max 9 airplanes.

“We have let down our airline customers and are deeply sorry for the significant disruption to them, their employees and their passengers,” Boeing said in a statement to NBC News. “We are taking action on a comprehensive plan to bring these airplanes safely back to service and to improve our quality and delivery performance. We will follow the lead of the FAA and support our customers every step of the way.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!