Late on Sunday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States announced that the essential missing piece of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet that was involved in an emergency landing by Alaska Airlines had been recovered from the backyard of a suburban home. During takeoff from Portland, Oregon, and en route to Ontario, California, the plug door on the left side of the Alaska Airlines plane tore off, causing the plane to depressurize and forcing the pilots to return and land safely with 171 passengers and six crew members on board.
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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an order on Saturday temporarily grounding all 171 Boeing MAX 9 jets equipped with the same panel, which weighs about 60 pounds (27 kg) and covers an optional exit door primarily used by low-cost airlines. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said on Sunday that a Portland school teacher, identified only as "Bob," found the missing plug door in his backyard in the Cedar Hills neighborhood, and she was "very relieved" that it had been found as it was a "key missing component" to determine the cause of the accident. She added that the structures team would examine everything on the door, including all the components on it, to look at witness marks, any paint transfer, and the shape of the door when it was found, as that could provide valuable insights into what happened.
Homendy also mentioned that the force resulting from the loss of the plug door was strong enough to blow open the cockpit door while the plane was in flight, which must have been a "terrifying event" to experience. Homendy further stated that the auto pressurization fail light illuminated the same Alaska Airlines aircraft on Dec. 7, Jan. 3, and Jan. 4, but it was unclear if there was any connection between those incidents and the accident. The airline, after the warnings, decided to limit the aircraft from making long flights over water to Hawaii so that it could return quickly to an airport if needed. Alaska Airlines said that write-ups of aircraft pressurization systems were standard in commercial aviation operations for large planes, and that "In every case, the write-up was fully evaluated and resolved per approved maintenance procedures and in full compliance with all applicable FAA regulations." The FAA grounded all Boeing MAX 9 planes, including those operated by other carriers such as United Airlines, until it was convinced that they were safe.
On Sunday, the FAA said that the affected fleet would remain grounded, and it had yet to determine the inspection criteria, leaving airlines without detailed instructions. People familiar with the matter said that the FAA and Boeing had yet to agree on the criteria for the checks required before the planes can resume flights. Alaska Airlines said on Sunday that it had not received instructions from Boeing yet. The airline canceled 170 flights on Sunday and another 60 on Monday, with travel disruptions expected to last through at least midweek. United, which grounded its 79 MAX 9s, canceled 230 flights on Sunday, accounting for 8% of scheduled departures. The recent accident has put Boeing back under scrutiny amid the certification process for its smaller MAX 7 and the larger MAX 10, which it needs to compete with an important Airbus model. In 2019, global authorities grounded all MAX planes for a wider period of 20 months after crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia linked to poorly designed cockpit software that claimed a total of 346 lives.