Alaska Airlines flight attendants feared passengers had been sucked out of the plane in the chaos following the Jan. 5 mid-air panel blowout on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet, according to harrowing testimony released by safety experts on Tuesday. The comments gathered from interviews with attendants - who were not named - were among thousands of pages of evidence made public ahead of a two-day hearing that began earlier on Tuesday by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board about the incident. They provide dramatic accounts of the cabin crew's efforts to help passengers and communicate with pilots when the panel blew off the jet at 16,000 feet after taking off from Portland, Oregon. “I said there is a hole in the plane, in the back of the plane and I’m sure we’ve lost passengers,” said one flight attendant with about 20 years of experience, after spotting the hole in the plane and five empty seats. The attendant was worried about an unaccompanied child toward the plane's rear. "All I could think of was that he was sitting there and he was too small to reach the mask and was probably really scared." The NTSB is reviewing 737 manufacturing and inspections and oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration with a goal of making recommendations to prevent a repeat in the future. The incident has morphed into a full-blown financial and reputational crisis for manufacturer Boeing. Flight attendants who were not authorized to speak publicly immediately after the accident described a loud bang, whooshing air and for one, tangled oxygen masks.<br/>
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The National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing have not been able to determine who removed a door plug in a new 737 MAX 9 Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 that suffered an in-flight emergency in January, the board's chair said on Tuesday. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters Boeing needs to make significant improvements to its safety practices. "The safety culture needs a lot of work (at Boeing)," she said. "It is not there from the evidence itself, from what you see in the interviews. There's not a lot of trust, there's a lot of distrust within the workforce." The Federal Aviation Administration has also said Boeing must improve its safety culture and practices and directed it to address quality issues before the agency will allow the planemaker to boost 737 MAX production. Boeing did not immediately comment. The NTSB has said the 737 MAX 9 was missing four key bolts. Boeing has said required documents detailing the removal of the door plug during production of a 737 MAX 9 that failed during the in-flight emergency were never created.Boeing has provided a list of 52 prior cases of a door plug removal since 2019. Boeing's senior vice president for quality, Elizabeth Lund, said the planemaker has now put a bright blue and yellow sign on the door plug when it arrives at the factory that says in big letters: "Do not open" and adds a redundancy "to ensure that the plug is not inadvertently opened."<br/>
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. is close to announcing a plan to buy dozens of twin-aisle aircraft and is favoring European planemaker Airbus in the decision, according to people familiar with the matter. The Hong Kong-based carrier is leaning toward Airbus to provide the long-range aircraft, though rival Boeing Co. could still seal a last-minute deal for its 787 Dreamliners, said the people, asking not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. A split order between the two planemakers is unlikely, the people said. Cathay already has 48 A350s in its fleet and operates 43 older generation A330s. Boeing last won an order from Cathay in 2013. Representatives for Cathay, Airbus and Boeing declined to comment. Cathay’s board has to sign off on any major plane purchase and directors are due to meet Wednesday to approve the airline’s first-half financial results before the numbers are released later that day. Bloomberg News reported January that Cathay was seeking proposals from Airbus and Boeing for new aircraft to replace some of its older mid-sized widebody jets in what would be the Hong Kong carrier’s largest buying spree in a decade. Last year, Cathay ordered dozens of new aircraft — all from Airbus — as it prepares for an expansion at its home base of Hong Kong International Airport, which is in the process of constructing a third runway.<br/>
Fiji Airways is launching the first ever direct flights between Nadi and Dallas, Texas. The flights from Fiji to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport will start on December 10, 2024 and will connect travellers with an additional 247 destinations through one of the busiest travel hubs in the world. The non-stop 13-hour service will operate three times per week every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday using an Airbus A350-900 XWB aircraft, which recently won “Best Economy Class” in Australia and Pacific at the SKYTRAX World Airline Awards 2024. Fares start at NZ$1199 from New Zealand, with a layover in Fiji. Fiji Airways flies daily from Auckland to Nadi, four days a week from Christchurch and three days a week from Wellington. Getting the 8am flight to Nadi from Auckland would leave travellers with an 11-hour layover in Nadi. That’s enough time get out for some sunshine before coming back to the airport for the 9.15pm flight to the US. Otherwise on the 2.05pm service from Auckland, the stop is five hours 10 minutes.<br/>