On 5 January 2024, minutes into an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon, a panel known as a door plug blew off a nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9, leaving a gaping hole in the fuselage at 16,000 feet. The plane, which had been in service for just eight weeks, landed safely with all 177 people aboard unharmed, but the incident reopened the deepest safety questions of Boeing’s modern era.
Investigators found that the plug, a blank panel covering an unused emergency exit, had been installed without the bolts needed to hold it in place, an error that pointed to failures in Boeing’s manufacturing and oversight culture. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all 171 Max 9s in the United States within days, and airlines across the world followed.
The blowout was the latest in a cascade of crises for a company still recovering from two fatal 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019. It triggered congressional hearings, the resignation of senior executives, a multibillion-dollar restructuring and, ultimately, the appointment of a new CEO charged with fixing quality, a task that would dominate the aerospace giant for the rest of the year.