A day before the door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5, engineers and technicians for the airline were so concerned about the mounting evidence of a problem that they wanted the plane to come out of service the next evening and undergo maintenance, interviews and documents show. But the airline chose to keep the plane, a Boeing 737 Max 9, in service on Jan. 5 with some restrictions, carrying passengers until it completed three flights that were scheduled to end that night in Portland, Ore., the site of one of the airline’s maintenance facilities. Before the plane could complete that scheduled sequence of flights and go in for the maintenance check, the door plug blew out at 16,000 feet, minutes after embarking on the second flight of the day, from Portland to Ontario International Airport in California. The plane landed safely and no one was seriously injured, but the incident focused new attention on Boeing’s manufacturing processes and the safety procedures followed by airlines. The scheduling of the maintenance check on the plane has not previously been reported. It demonstrates that the airline chose to keep the plane in service while it made its way toward the maintenance facility rather than flying it to Portland without passengers. Alaska Airlines confirmed the sequence of events. But the airline said the warnings it had on the plane did not meet its standards for immediately taking it out of service. Donald Wright, the vice president for maintenance and engineering for Alaska Airlines, said the warning signals — a light indicating problems with the plane’s pressurization system — had come on twice in the previous 10 days instead of the three times the airline considers the trigger to take more aggressive action. <br/>
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Alaska Air Group forecast losses that were better than expected, even as the grounding of Boeing 737 Max 9 planes following its January fuselage blowout curtailed profits at the airline by at least $150m. Alaska Air sees a Q1 adjusted loss per share of about 45 cents to 55 cents, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. That compared to the average analyst estimate of loss of $1.18. The airline said its performance was now back on track to “exceed expectations” for the rest of the year, thanks to spring break and West Coast business travel. The company, which is currently cooperating in a US Justice Department investigation on the incident, said it’s returned its fleet to service and restored its schedule. Alaska said it has received partial compensation from Boeing and its adjusted loss per share expectation reflects the outlay from Boeing Co. Alaska said full-year capacity expectations are still in flux due to uncertainty around the timing of aircraft deliveries as a result of increased Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Justice scrutiny on Boeing and its operations.<br/>
A student pilot on an Alaska Airlines flight from San Diego, California to Washington, D.C. is facing charges after allegedly trying to rush the aircraft’s flight deck multiple times during the five-hour flight. Nathan Jones told flight attendants that he “was testing them,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by The Daily Beast. It was filed in Virginia federal court March 4, the day after Jones was arrested for interference with flight crew members, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. On March 3, Jones took his assigned seat—6A—aboard Alaska flight 322, the complaint states. He then proceeded to make “three separate attempts to go to the front of the plane and open the aircraft’s cockpit door before flight attendants requested the assistance of off-duty law enforcement officers, who restrained Jones in flexcuffs and sat on either side of him for the remainder of the flight,” according to the document. The cockpit was “locked down for the remainder of the flight.”<br/>
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways reported on Wednesday a HK$9.79b ($1.25b) profit for 2023, its first annual profit since 2019, and said it plans to expand its workforce by around 20%, or 5,000 people, this year. Cathay is embarking on a massive recruitment drive as it recovers from the impact of COVID-19 which resulted in heavy losses for Hong Kong's flagship airline. It posted a loss of HK$6.6b in 2022. Its shares were up 1.6% ahead of the earnings announcement, their highest level since Aug. 15. Cathay said it aims to reach 80% of its pre-pandemic passenger flights within the second quarter of this year. The carrier has restored capacity more slowly than its closest rival, Singapore Airlines because it faced tighter quarantine rules for longer, and needed to hire more staff to bring back services.<br/>