The Boeing Door Blowout Is Likely a One Time Event
Don't cancel your travel plans!
You have probably seen the news that an emergency door on an Alaskan Airlines Boeing 737 Max jet blew out soon after takeoff. The plane landed safely with everyone on board unharmed.
In the Air Force, I was a trained accident investigator. I spent a summer at the Air Force’s accident investigation course and I have a couple of thoughts on this recent incident.
Thousands of jets of all makes fly every day. Ten million passenger flights per year according to the FAA. One door, while a scary event, out of millions of flights is a pretty good clue that this was a one-time event.
In cases like this, it is almost always human error that let to the eventual incident. I am sure investigators will find that a change/check/adjustment was made to the door that destroyed its integrity.
This was not a pressurization issue. The plane was not high enough to have a big differential between the cabin and the outside.
Kudos to the flight crew for getting the jet and all onboard safely on the ground.
The news media, which doesn’t know much about how aircraft work, will likely blow this event out of proportion. Don’t let it scare you out of commercial air travel.
We as a species are awful at objectively quantifying risk. For example you are much more likely to die on the ride to the airport than in a plane, yet people with huge flying anxieties/phobias have no issue with driving over the speed limit while texting.
Thank you, Tim. My hubby (USAF, retired, Air Traffic Controller) was saying the same thing to me knowing we are traveling in next few weeks (we been flying a number of trips in 737 MAXs lately). And since I'm the planner and the financial one in our marriage (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ plug for your services), I woke up last night making a list of all the things I needed to update for our kids... just in case.