From Fortune:

Alaska Airlines grounds Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft after an emergency landing in Portland due to a section of fuselage blowing out. This incident has rekindled memories of past 737 Max disasters. Fortunately, no one died in this incident. Boeing had been grounded worldwide from March 2019 to December 2020 due to recurring failures, which led to deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019.

In a previous crash, a 737 Max departing from Jakarta, Indonesia, crashed into the Java Sea. In another incident, another 737 Max crashed in Ethiopia. The worldwide grounding followed the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration receiving evidence of similarities between the two accidents.

After changes in design and training were mandated, the plane was cleared to return to service in November 2020 but has been involved in yet another incident.

Boeing had agreed to pay $2.5 billion in settlement with the Justice Department in 2021. The incident maybe unrelated to previous incidents, said aviation expert John Strickland. There are 215 of the 737 Max 9 in service around the world, United Airlines has 79 of them in service, and United and Alaska Airlines together have about a third of them.



Read more: Alaska Airlines scare echoes 737 Max crashes in 2018-19