Jennifer Homendy travel tips

Officials investigating why a panel on a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew open during an Alaska Airlines flight last week say they are struggling to piece together exactly what happened because the plane’s cockpit voice recorder overwrote itself before it could be retrieved.

After months of short-term funding to keep the Federal Aviation Administration afloat, Congress just unveiled a new reauthorization bill that covers everything from pilot training to family seating. 

Boeing has been under increased scrutiny ever since a door panel blew off an Alaska Airlines plane in mid-flight.

The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the Alaska Airlines blowout incident that took place January 5, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board told a Senate committee on Wednesday that it has yet to receive key information from Boeing related to the Alaska Airlines blowout incident. 

Boeing has not been fully cooperative with investigators looking at January's door plug incident on board an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9, the lead investigator of a federal probe into the company said Wednesday during a Congressional hearing.

An Alaska Airlines flight departing Portland International Airport (PDX) on Friday night experienced a sudden cabin decompression as a fitting on its fuselage shot away from the plane, leaving a gaping hole in the airplane as frightened passengers scrambled to put on emergency oxygen masks.

Alaska Airlines said it is canceling all flights operated on the Boeing 737 Max 9 through January 13 as it awaits approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct inspections on the aircraft. 

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, January 10. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Federal officials investigating Friday’s Alaska Airlines door blowout are looking into whether the bolts meant to keep a door plug in place were ever installed, or went missing at a later stage. 

United Airlines said on Monday that it had found installation defects during its inspections of the door plugs on Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets, including loose bolts.

On Friday, a fuselage panel blew out on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 plane seven minutes after takeoff from Portland, Oregon.

The FAA said Monday that airlines can begin inspecting more than 100 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after a section of the fuselage on an Alaska Airlines jet blew off shortly after takeoff. 

Airlines on Monday were told exactly how to inspect the 737 Max 9 from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration two days after one of jets suffered a dangerous failure during a flight.

Cancellations for Alaska Airlines and United Airlines continued into Monday as the FAA said certain Boeing 7 Max 9s would stay grounded until the agency deemed them safe to operate. 

The cockpit voice recorder for Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was overwritten, hampering investigators aiming to determine why a door plug for an exit door on the Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner blew out shortly after the flight took off from Portland on Friday night.

A Boeing passenger jet model, the 737 Max 9, remained grounded in the United States on Sunday as airlines awaited instructions from the plane maker and the Federal Aviation Administration on how to inspect the planes and resume service, two days after a harrowing flight raised concerns about the jet.

Investigators are currently searching for the missing panel that fell off an Alaska Airlines’ jet fuselage during a flight on Friday. 

Investigators asked for the public's help Saturday night to find a missing piece of the Alaska Airlines jet that lost a plug in its fuselage on Friday.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, December 7. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Just two years ago, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Steve Dickson, encouraged pilots to seek mental health treatment if needed, but also referred to the risk to their careers of doing so as “perceived.”