Travel influencer Brian Kelly, aka “The Points Guy,” warned flyers to avoid boarding the Boeing 737 Max 9 after the Alaska Airlines jet suffered a horrific mid-flight explosion on Friday.
“So while I’m still standing by that very safe plane, I’m probably going to avoid the 737 Max 9 until they figure this out,” Kelly said in an Instagram Story Monday.
The founder of the website The Points Guy — which offers travelers advice on the best points and mileage programs and has more than a million Instagram followers — referred to “installation issues” the airline encountered on some Max 9s following Alaska Airlines’ woes.
United Airlines, which has an entire fleet of Boeing models, said it found loose bolts in some planes in the area around the door plugs – like the one that blew on an Alaska Airlines flight to California shortly after takeoff.
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all Max 9s after Friday’s dangerous crash, which caused a rapid depression and forced the plane to return to Portland International Airport in an emergency landing.
Travel guru Brian Kelly said he would “probably avoid the 737 Max 9 until they figure this out.” Instagram / Brian Kelly
Miraculously, all 171 passengers and six crew members survived, without serious injuries.
“I mean the chances of another incident happening are slim but as we’ve seen with the other 737 Max, there were several fatal incidents before they fixed it,” Kelly said, referring to the Max 8 model that was recalled after two Max 8 jets crashed. in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
An Alaska Airlines plane involved in Friday’s scare was not allowed to fly to Hawaii after a warning light that could indicate a pressure issue came on three previous flights before a door plug broke and left a gaping hole in the plane.
A passenger’s oxygen mask hangs from the roof next to a missing window and part of a side wall of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 5, 2024. Instagram/@strawberrvy via REUTE National Transportation Safety Board Investigator-in-charge John Lovell inspects the plug area the fuselage of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX in Portland, Ore., on January 7, 2024. via REUTERS
Alaska Airlines restricted the plane from long flights over water so it “could quickly return to the airport” if the lights came on a fourth time, National Transportation Safety Board Jennifer Homendy told reporters Sunday.
But Homendy said there was no known correlation between the light and the mid-flight explosion early in the board’s investigation.
Still, Kelly said: “Let’s give this one some time” referring to the Boeing 737 Max 9s, which he said he avoids because “they’re cramped.”
This photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows a door plug from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Jan. 8, 2024, in Portland, Ore. AP
In total, 171 Max 9 jets were grounded. Alaska Airlines was forced to cancel 20% of all its flights early Monday while United canceled another 221.
No other US airline uses that particular model.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
