oneworld

Alaska Airlines said on Thursday it will extend the cancellation of its Boeing, opens new tab 737 MAX 9 flights through Sunday as the FAA continues to review inspection data from an initial group of 40 planes. The FAA had said last week that 40 of 171 grounded planes needed to be re-inspected before the agency would review the results and determine if it is safe to allow the MAX 9s to resume flying following the Jan. 5 mid-air cabin blowout on an eight-week old Alaska, opens new tab jet.<br/>

Alaska Airlines was sued by a group of passengers who said the company failed to adequately protect their safety by flying the Boeing 737 Max 9 jet that experienced a midair blowout of a door plug earlier this month. Passengers on the Jan. 5 flight claim the airline should have known about lapses in the quality of safety inspections being conducted on the aircraft and the possible use of “incorrect or inferior” parts, according to an amendment to the lawsuit they filed Friday in Washington state court against plane maker Boeing. “Alaska Airlines breached its duty to its passengers by failing to ground” the plane before the flight, lawyers for the passengers said in the new complaint. Alaska Airlines declined to comment on the suit. The suit seeks unspecified damages from Alaska Airlines and Boeing for the physical injuries and emotional trauma experienced by the 171 passengers and six crew on Flight 1282, which made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, after the blowout. The passengers claim Alaska Airlines should have imposed more stringent quality-inspection requirements on Boeing before accepting the 737 Max 9 jets it purchased. The suit said the carrier was aware of past safety issues with Boeing planes.<br/>

Police arrested an American Airlines flight attendant on Thursday on suspicion of trying to secretly record a 14-year-old female passenger using a bathroom aboard an airplane he was working on last September. Police also allege Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, of Charlotte, North Carolina, had recordings of four other minor female passengers using lavatories on an aircraft he had worked on previously. Thompson was charged with attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of child sexual abuse images depicting a prepubescent minor. He was arrested in Lynchburg, Virginia, and will remain in custody pending his initial court appearance in Virginia. He will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date, officials said. “The deeply disturbing conduct alleged here is something no parent or child should ever have to worry about when they travel,” acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement. “Mr. Thompson allegedly used his position to prey on and surreptitiously record innocent children, including unaccompanied minors.” American Airlines issued a statement saying they take the allegation very seriously. They also said the flight attendant was “immediately withheld from service following the September 2023 incident” and hasn’t worked since. “They don’t reflect our airline or our core mission of caring for people,” the statement read. “We have been fully cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation as there is nothing more important than the safety and security of our customers and team.”<br/>

British Airways plans to double Chinese cabin crew for its flights between China and the UK as it sees strong demand for premium leisure travel. The UK’s flagship carrier, which currently has 50 China-based cabin crew in its ranks, will add another 50 local-language staff, equally split between its bases in Shanghai and Beijing, Calum Laming, the airline’s chief customer officer said during an interview with Bloomberg in the Chinese capital Thursday. The recruitment drive, which will be mostly finalized before Lunar New Year in mid-February, will make China British Airways’ second-largest international cabin crew base after India, according to Laming. British Airways announced its recruitment plan back in October and since then has received thousands of applicants, Laming said. British Airways resumed flights from London to Shanghai in April and to Beijing in June. “This shows our commitment especially because we are operating 11 flights a week into mainland China,” he said. “It is significant that a proportion of the cabin crew operating the flights will be China based.” This move is also a reflection of the strong demand for premium leisure travel post-Covid. “We’ve seen very strong demand, particularly in premium leisure, while we have other business travel recovering more slowly,” Laming said. “We have an incredibly strong summer, particularly from premium leisure, and also a strong festive season of Christmas and New Year. We’re hoping for a strong Chinese New Year season too.”<br/>