Thousands of travelers have been affected by the grounding of Boeing 737 Max 9 jets after part of an Alaska Airlines plane wall blew off in midair Friday.
Before the accident, roughly 600 flights took off daily with Max 9s that had a similar configuration, according to the tracking site Flightradar24.
About 60 percent of those flights were within the continental United States, but 40 or so flights crossed the Pacific daily, flying to and from Hawaii. Alaska Airlines had previously stopped flying one of its planes on that route because of warnings from a cabin-pressurization system.
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The Federal Aviation Administration has specifically grounded Max 9 planes with mid-cabin door plugs, which panel off unused emergency exits. That’s what blew off midair on Friday’s flight. United and Alaska Airlines both have reported finding loose bolts or hardware since beginning inspections. It’s unclear how long inspections will take.
That model of Max 9 is operated by five airlines globally. United Airlines has the largest number of Max 9s, but those planes make up less than 10 percent of the carrier’s fleet. More than 1 in 5 planes flown by Alaska Airlines and Copa Airlines had the same door configuration as the plane in Friday’s accident.
Hundreds of flights have been canceled since the accident. United Airlines said Monday that it had canceled 200 737 Max 9 flights. According to the flight tracking site FlightAware, at least 130 Alaska Airlines and 280 United Airlines Max 9 flights scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday have been canceled.
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