Alaska Airlines said on Friday it has returned to Boeing the 737 MAX 9 plane that in January was involved in a mid-air door panel blowout. "They have taken possession of it and the registration has been changed," an Alaska Airlines spokesperson said, adding an order for a new 737-10 has also been placed. Boeing has informed its suppliers there will be a delay in a key production milestone for its 737 jet family by three months, sources told Reuters' earlier this month. U.S. investigators on Thursday sanctioned Boeing for revealing details of a probe into the blowout and said they would refer its conduct to the Justice Department, prompting the planemaker to issue an apology.<br/>
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Sixteen flights have been diverted and dozens more are likely to be heavily delayed or cancelled at London Gatwick airport, after a British Airways flight to Vancouver abandoned its departure in the middle of the runway. No one is believed to have been hurt when BA2279 rejected take-off at high speed, leading to overheated brakes The aircraft is a Boeing 777-200, built in 1999. A British Airways spokesperson said: “Our pilots took the precautionary decision to cancel take-off due to a technical issue. Safety is always our top priority and we apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused.” But all arrivals and departures at the world’s busiest single-runway came to a halt for 50 minutes. The first flight to divert was an incoming British Airways flight from Verona, which went to Stansted. Also diverted to the Essex airport are easyJet flights from Palermo and Vueling from Barcelona. Many easyJet flights intending to touch down at Gatwick have instead landed at Luton. BA arrivals from Malaga and Orlando landed at Heathrow. The Norwegian flight from Stockholm landed in Bournemouth. The most extreme diversion was an Emirates A380 “SuperJumbo” from Dubai that went to Brussels. It refuelled and departed again for Gatwick, but was forced to hold before finally landing at 4.30pm, four hours behind schedule. An estimated 500 passengers are waiting to depart for Dubai, but many of them will miss onward connections. Operations resumed at Gatwick shortly before 1pm but disruption will continue for the rest of the day with planes, pilots and passengers out of position.<br/>
Passengers and crew of a British Airways flight who were taken hostage in Kuwait in 1990 have launched legal action against the UK government and the airline, a law firm said Monday. People on BA flight 149 were taken off the Kuala Lumpur-bound plane when it landed in the Gulf state on August 2 that year, hours after Iraq's then leader Saddam Hussein invaded the country. Some of the 367 passengers and crew spent more than four months in captivity, including as human shields against Western attacks on the Iraqi dictator's troops during the first Gulf war. Ninety-four of them have filed a civil claim at the High Court in London, accusing Britain's government and BA of "deliberately endangering" civilians, said McCue Jury & Partners. "All of the claimants suffered severe physical and psychiatric harm during their ordeal, the consequences of which are still felt today," the law firm added. The action claims that the UK government and the airline "knew the invasion had started" but allowed the flight to land anyway.<br/>