KUALA LUMPUR – The 171 passengers onboard the Alaska Airlines flight in January that suffered a sudden mid-air decompression when a fuselage panel unexpectedly blew out, may have been the victims of a crime.
The FBI sent letters to passengers to inform them of their findings, AFP reported on Friday.
“As a victim specialist with the Seattle Division, I’m contacting you because we have identified you as a possible victim of a crime.
“This case is currently under investigation by the FBI. A criminal investigation can be a lengthy undertaking, and, for several reasons, we cannot tell you about its progress at this time,” said the letter that was sent to passengers.
This comes after the US’ Department of Justice earlier this month announced it was opening a criminal investigation into the near-catastrophic incident on January 5, when a panel blew off the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines-operated plane mid-flight.
No one was seriously hurt, but the 737 MAX 9 had to make an emergency landing, with footage showing the terrifying scene as passengers sat next to the gaping hole.
The so-called door plug landed in a suburban backyard.
The incident resulted in planes with similar configurations being temporarily grounded, forcing thousands of flights to be cancelled.
Federal investigators say bolts that should have secured the panel – a covering for an optional exit – were not installed.
Aviation giant Boeing has been criticised for dragging its heels in the probe, with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) saying at the start of March it had not received key documents or the names of Boeing employees who worked on the part in question.
“We don’t have the records. We don’t have the names of the 25 people in charge of doing that work in that facility,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told US lawmakers.
“It’s absurd that two months later we don’t have that.”
It was reported previously that Boeing was under further scrutiny with the new safety probe initiated by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after the near-fatal incident.
The planemaker has been in trouble before due to the fatal 2018 and 2019 crashes involving the 737 model, which led to a lengthy global grounding of the aircraft. – March 23, 2024