Alaska Airlines is at the center of another aviation debacle as a plane arrived at a gate in Portland, Oregon, last Friday with its cargo door open. The cargo hold was carrying pets belonging to passengers, as reported by local TV station KOIN. However, none of the animals sustained injuries during the incident. The plane had flown in from Los Cabos, Mexico.
Dramatic photos obtained by KOIN 6 show Flight 1437 from Los Cabos, Mexico after landing at Portland International Airport, in which the cargo door can be seen cracked open. It is unclear how long the door remained open but the Boeing 737 did not require an emergency landing.
Another Aviation Drama
Crew members reported no indication of the door being open during the flight, suggesting that the door opened after the aircraft had landed. Alaska Airlines told KOIN in a statement, saying, "Upon landing at PDX on March 1, Alaska Airlines flight 1437 was discovered to have the forward cargo door unsealed.
"There was no indication to the crew that the door was unsealed during flight and all indications point to the door partially opening after landing.
"Our maintenance teams inspected the aircraft, replaced a spring in the door, tested the door and reentered it into service," the Alaska Airlines statement concluded.
Pets owned by passengers were in the cargo space at the time. Fortunately, there have been no reports of injuries. Aviation expert Joe Schwieterman described the incident as a "pretty major defect."
"It affects a lot of the electrical equipment in that cargo hold. So, it is troublesome that you may have a plane where some things like this went undetected," he told KOIN 6.
The expert noted that a defect of this nature should have activated a sensor, but it didn't seem to in this case.
More Trouble for Boeing
The unsettling incident from last week came just one day after another Alaska Airlines flight had to return to Portland's PDX. Multiple passengers on that flight reported smelling fumes in the cabin.
The Phoenix-bound flight was investigated by fire crews from the Port of Portland and Portland Fire and Rescue to ascertain the cause of the smell.
Crew members on Flight 646 declared an emergency following reports from passengers in the rear of the plane regarding the presence of "some fumes or an odor."
Officials said that investigators were unable to identify a cause for the reported smell.
Alaska Airlines made headlines in January when a door plug blew off mid-air during a flight from Portland to Ontario, California.
Boeing and Alaska Airlines are currently embroiled in a $1 billion lawsuit over plane safety. The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board also issued a warning that the incident in January could potentially recur.
The aircraft involved in the January incident was a Boeing 737 MAX 8.
In a separate incident on Friday, a Boeing 737 MAX 9 veered off a runway at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, leading to the evacuation of all passengers. The United Airlines flight was originally bound for Memphis, Tennessee.
