On January 2nd, Japan Airlines Flight 516 crashed into a plane operated by the Japanese Coast Guard on the runway of Tokyo International Airport. As March break approaches, with many planning air travel, this incident highlights the significance of acknowledging safety precautions in air travel. This is particularly important considering the frequency of approximately four airplane crashes per day. The crash was the first major accident by Japan Airlines since the infamous Flight 123 in 1985, which resulted in the loss of 520 lives. The passengers of the JAL Airbus A350 were very fortunate, as all 367 passengers and 12 crew survived. However, the occupants of the Coast Guard airplane were less lucky, as five of the six crew died in the crash.
The crash occurred as the Japan Airlines flight was attempting to land after it had been cleared by air traffic control. In the low visibility night conditions, the pilots could not see the Coast Guard plane, which had been stationary just seconds earlier, speeding down the runway. The back of the Coast Guard plane was hit by the JAL flight, and it quickly caught on fire and exploded. The JAL plane was sent spinning down the runway for several hundred meters before coming to a stop, at which point the plane began to fill with smoke.
After the crash, authorities ordered the passengers of the stricken A350 to evacuate. The crash rendered many escape doors unusable, and the in-flight announcement system had broken, leading to mass uncertainty. Crew members shouted instructions at passengers, who selflessly refrained from attempting to save their belongings, thereby accelerating the evacuation process. Miraculously, the crew successfully evacuated the plane in just 18 minutes without any fatalities. It took over 70 fire trucks six hours to eventually extinguish the fire.
Just a mere three days after the tragedy in Japan, another commercial aircraft accident occurred in the skies over Oregon. This time, a door on an Alaskan Airlines plane blew out mid-flight, causing a rapid depressurization of the main cabin. The door and passenger belongings were scattered over residential neighborhoods near Portland, Oregon. Despite a door-sized opening in the side of the fuselage, the pilots successfully landed the aircraft at its airport of origin. Fortunately, all passengers survived, with three minor injuries to those directly adjacent to the break.
An optional modification made to the aircraft by Alaskan Airlines, the door plug takes the place of a traditional emergency exit door in order to fit more seats in the main cabin. Door plugs are common on all types of short- to medium-range aircraft, including 737s. The exact aircraft, a Boeing 737 MAX-9 registered as N704AL, first flew just three months earlier on October 15, 2023. The failure of this door plug therefore sparked questions about the assembly of the brand-new aircraft.
Following the incident, Alaskan and other airlines inspected their 737 MAXs and found multiple planes with loose bolts in their plug doors. This incident raises further questions about the 737 MAX program, which experienced a prior fleet-wide grounding of its smaller 737 MAX-8 variant, following two fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia. However, these crashes were due to a different issue in the MCAS system, not a door plug. The new findings serve as yet another setback to the program and the company’s reputation as a whole, with an ongoing investigation probing its manufacturing processes and in-service events.
