Alaska Airlines Says it Sends its Own Inspectors to Boeing’s 737MAX Factory Five Days a Week to Make Sure Production Standards Don’t Slip

Alaska Airlines says it has been forced to station its own team of inspectors at Boeing’s 737MAX factory in Renton, near Seattle, to ensure new airplanes destined to join the carrier’s fleet are up to standard.

The admission came nearly 12 months to the day that Alaska Airlines flight 1282 to Ontario, California, experienced an explosive blowout of a mid-cabin exit door plug as it was climbing out of Portland Airport on January 5, 2024.

On the eve of the accident’s one-year anniversary, Alaska Airlines said a team of three Aircraft Acquisition Representatives now spend five days a week on-site at the Boeing factory in Renton, which built the 737MAX-9 aircraft that suffered the decompression.

Alaska Airlines also said that it had ‘augmented’ with three specialist Maintenance and Engineering employees to improve oversight of Boeing’s production processes and that team members work different shifts and are available on-call at short notice should any concerns be raised about what is happening at the Boeing Renton facility.

In addition, the Seattle-based carrier has hired Ausgael Aviation Services to provide additional inspection and audit service at the Renton factory seven days per week.

If that weren’t enough, Alaska Airlines has tasked three of its own engineers to oversee test flights and carry out final inspections before any Boeing 737MAX produced in Renton is delivered to the carrier.

Despite all the extra scrutiny that Alaska Airlines has been giving Boeing and suppliers like Spirit AeroSystems, which produced the faulty exit door plug, the carrier says it is “optimistic about Boeing’s dedication and positive momentum in making significant improvements.”

“Looking ahead, we have planned several visits to Boeing in 2025 to ensure our teams and Ausgael are inspecting our aircraft thoroughly and to observe Boeing’s continued process and cultural improvements firsthand.”

Alaska Airlines has orders for 74 more Boeing 737MAX jets to be delivered, so the airline and its team of inspectors and auditors could be regular visitors to Boeing for a number of years to come.

And given the fact that Alaska Airlines now owns Hawaiian Airlines, the carrier says it now plans to extend its on-site oversight activities to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Charleston, North Carolina.

Hawaiian Airlines has just seven more Dreamliners to be delivered, although a new order could be on the cards, given the Alaska Airlines Group’s ambitious plans for the brand.

Over the course of the last 12 months since the incident aboard Flight 1282, Alaska Airlines says it has seen improvements in work processes at Boeing, as well as a renewed emphasis on promoting safety, compliance and voluntary reporting.

Commenting on Flight 1282, a spokesperson for Alaska Airlines said: “It’s fair to say this event changed our airline and our industry. We continue to extend our sincere gratitude to our crew for their exceptional skill, courage and professionalism in ensuring the safe return of everyone to Portland. ”

On the anniversary of the accident, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) which represents crew members at Alaska Airlines, praised the flight attendants and pilots who were onboard Flight 1282, for working “quickly and heroically to ensure everyone made it to the ground safely.”

“Over the last year, our union has worked closely with the FAA and NTSB to ensure the failures that led to this incident are not repeated,” a statement from the union continued. “No cutting corners in the name of profits. Safety first always.”

Last April, Boeing agreed to pay Alaska Airlines an initial compensation sum of $160 million to cover the cost of lost revenues from flight cancellations when similar planes with an exit door plug had to be grounded.

Several months later, it was revealed that Boeing had bought back the nearly-new plane (registration: N704AL) from Alaska.

All 171 passengers and six crew members survived the accident, but several people suffered minor injuries as the exit plug was ripped out and debris flew through the cabin. Some of the passengers aboard Flight 1282 are pursuing a lawsuit against Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems.