An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, at about 5 p.m. on Friday, January 5th, 2024, when a panel and window the size of a refrigerator blew out of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft.
The incident has led to a federal investigation, and a number of planes have been grounded for safety concerns. Robert A. Clifford, founder and senior partner of Clifford Law Offices in Chicago and Lead Counsel in the U.S. federal district court litigation involving the 2019 Boeing 737 Max8 jet crash that occurred in Ethiopia, was interviewed by WGN Radio, CNN, Associated Press, the Washington Post, Portland reporters and many other outlets regarding the incident.
“The public interest in safe travel requires a closer look at Boeing’s priorities and processes. It must have been completely frightening for all of those passengers on Flight 1282 not knowing if those were their last moments of life,” Clifford said.
He told CNN, “This incident with the Max9 should force the aviation community, particularly government regulators, to determine if the Boeing Max8 was allowed to fly again too hastily in Boeing’s efforts to get those planes back in the air,” he said, noting lives were saved because the plane was 16,000 feet in the air. “If something like this happened at 30,000 feet, everyone would perish.”
Listen to Bob Clifford on WGN Radio here:
For further information or to speak to Robert A. Clifford or the aviation team at Clifford Law Offices, contact the firm’s Communications Partner Pam ela Sakowicz Menaker at 847-721-0909 (cell).