The first six minutes of the flight to Southern California’s Ontario International Airport were routine. The Boeing 737 Max 9 was about halfway to its cruising altitude and traveling at more than 400 mph (640 kph) when passengers described a loud “boom” and wind so strong it ripped the shirt off someone’s back.

The blame for a horrifying mid-flight blowout of a door plug on an Alaska Airlines flight last year is shared by plane manufacturer Boeing, its supplier Spirit Aerosystems and the Federal Aviation Administration,

The nation's top safety investigators concluded that a lack of basic safety processes at Boeing, coupled with an inexperienced workforce, contributed to the door plug blowout in January 2024.