By An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 in Seattle on January 6, 2024. | Photo by Stephen Brashear / Getty Images
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered the “temporary grounding” of 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 airplanes this morning after section of fuselage separated off the side of an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the plane. The agency said in its announcement that it will send an Emergency Airworthiness Directive out soon to require an inspection of all of the grounded planes that “will take around four to eight hours per aircraft.”
The New York Times reported yesterday that flight 1282 from Portland International Airport had made an emergency landing back at the same airport just 20 minutes later because of a “pressurization issue” that resulted in a wall of the plane blowing out. Incredibly,…