Travel influencer Brian Kelly, also known as “The Points Guy,” is warning travelers to avoid getting on a Boeing 737 Max 9 after an Alaska Airlines plane suffered a terrifying mid-flight explosion on Friday.
“So while I still think flying is very safe, I would probably avoid the 737 Max 9 until they figure this out,” Kelly said in an Instagram Story on Monday.
The founder of the website The Points Guy, which offers advice to travelers on the best points and miles programs and has more than a million followers on Instagram, was referring to the “installation problems” that airlines discovered in some of The Max 9 in the wake of the Alaska Airlines ordeal.
United Airlines, which has an entire fleet of Boeing models, said it found loose bolts on some of the planes in areas around the door plugs, like the one that exploded on an Alaska Airlines flight bound for California shortly after takeoff. .
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all Max 9s after Friday’s dangerous mishap, which caused rapid depressurization and forced the plane to return to Portland International Airport in an emergency landing.
Travel guru Brian Kelly says he would “probably avoid the 737 Max 9 until they figure this stuff out.” Instagram/Brian Kelly
Miraculously, all 171 passengers and six crew members were okay and did not suffer serious injuries.
“I mean the chances of another incident happening are small, but as we saw with the other 737 Max, there were several fatal incidents before they fixed it,” Kelly said, referring to the Max 8 model that was retired after two planes Max 8 will crash. in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
The Alaska Airlines plane involved in Friday’s scare was not allowed to fly to Hawaii after a warning light that could indicate a pressurization problem came on on three previous flights before the door plug broke and left a big hole in the plane.
Passengers’ oxygen masks hang from the ceiling next to a missing window and a portion of a side wall of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in Portland, Oregon, on January 5, 2024. Instagram/@strawberrvy via REUTE Researcher from the National Transportation Safety Board -Charge John Lovell examines the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX in Portland, Oregon, January 7, 2024. via REUTERS
Alaska Airlines restricted the plane from long flights over water so that it “could return very quickly to an airport” if the light illuminated a fourth time, National Transportation Safety Board Jennifer Homendy told reporters Sunday.
But Homendy said there is no known correlation between the light and the mid-flight explosion so early in the board’s investigation.
Still, Kelly said, “Let’s give this a little time,” referring to the Boeing 737 Max 9s, which he said he avoids anyway because “they’re tight.”
This photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the door plug from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on January 8, 2024 in Portland, Oregon. AP
In total, 171 Max 9 planes were grounded. Alaska Airlines was forced to cancel 20% of all its flights early Monday, while United canceled another 221.
No other US airline flies that specific model.
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn