Alaska 737 Max Cockpit Data Erased After Mid-Flight Door Blowout

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair Jennifer Homendy said cockpit recording data on the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet, which lost a fuselage panel that triggered a sudden decompression event near Portland on Friday, won’t be retrieved because the data was erased. 

On Sunday, Homendy told reporters that after Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport – the ground crew did not pull the circuit breaker on the cockpit voice recorder, or black box, to preserve the audio, which only holds two hours or data, as required by federal law. 

“There was a lot going on, on the flight deck and on the plane. It’s a very chaotic event. The circuit breaker for the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) was not pulled. The maintenance team went out to get it, but it was right at about the two-hour mark,” Homendy said.

She continued: “The cockpit voice recorder was completely overwritten. There was nothing on the cockpit voice recorder.” 

Reuters noted US cockpit recorders only need to log two hours of data versus 25 hours in Europe for aircraft made after 2021. 

The NTSB head said the audio could have shed more light on the moments leading up to the aircraft’s door ripping off the fuselage at 16,000 feet. 

Boeing & Spirit AeroSystems Shares Plunge After Max 737-9 Max Door Blowout Incident https://t.co/8DD60MxY2I

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 8, 2024

Homendy called on the “FAA to change the rulemaking” on cockpit recorders, extending the recording time from 2 to 25 hours for all aircraft.

“If that communication is not recorded, that is unfortunately a loss for us and a loss for the FAA and a loss for safety because that information is key not just for our investigation but for improving aviation safety,” she said.

During the decompression event, a new-generation Apple iPhone was sucked out of the plane and landed near a road in Portland. An X user named “Seanathan Bates” discovered the device, which did not appear to be damaged. 

Found an iPhone on the side of the road… Still in airplane mode with half a battery and open to a baggage claim for #AlaskaAirlines ASA1282 Survived a 16,000 foot drop perfectly in tact!

When I called it in, Zoe at @NTSB said it was the SECOND phone to be found. No door yet😅 pic.twitter.com/CObMikpuFd

— Seanathan Bates (@SeanSafyre) January 7, 2024

In a separate report, Bloomberg Intelligence’s George Ferguson and Melissa Balzano believe the in-flight mishap “probably stems from a manufacturing oversight, a sign of deficiency at Spirit AeroSystems, Boeing’s key supplier.” 

Diagram of a Boeing 737-9 mid-cabin door plug and components (Source: Boeing) pic.twitter.com/7qPF5MGAOX

— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) January 8, 2024

Don’t forget the Max program is a flying disaster. 

As a reminder, the 737 Max was “designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys”.https://t.co/Z5rt2LoI3e

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 6, 2024

The FAA has previously rejected the NTSB’s call to upgrade aircraft with new cockpit voice recorders. That should be reversed since Max jets “designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys’ continue to fly around.