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Alaska Airlines returns the 737 Max 9 to service today with Seattle to San Diego flight
Alaska Airlines plans to return the 737 Max 9 aircraft to service on Friday, with the first flight leaving from Seattle this afternoon and landing in San Diego. The trip will mark the first for this model of Boeing aircraft since a mid-air blowout earlier this month prompted the FAA to ground the jets.
Alaska Flight 1146 will depart Seattle at 2:20 p.m. Pacific Time, the airline said. It plans to fly two additional 737 Max 9 flights later in the afternoon — Flight 621 from Las Vegas to Portland, Oregon, and Flight 1086 from Seattle to Ontario, California.
United Airlines, the only other U.S. airline that operates the aircraft, said its 737 Max 9 fleet would begin returning to service on Saturday. United told CBS News that it will allow passengers who don’t want to fly on a Max 9 aircraft to change flights without additional cost, depending on seat availability.
The mid-air blowout occurred when a door plug, which are panels designed to fit into an unused exit and transform it into wall section with a window, blew out a few minutes after departure. No passengers were seriously injured, but by luck no one was seated next to the door plug that fell off the fuselage. Experts said the incident could have been far worse if passengers had been seated next to that section or if the incident occurred later in the flight when people typically unbuckle their seat belts.
Alaska Airlines grounded all of its Max 9 jets within hours, while the FAA grounded all other Max 9s in the U.S. the following day.
Airlines found problems on other planes. Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci told NBC this week that “many” of the planes they inspected had loose bolts that are supposed to help secure the door plug to a jet’s airframe. United Airlines also found unsecured bolts on some of its Max 9s.
On Wednesday, the FAA announced it had cleared the way for the aircraft to return to service following a rigorous inspection and maintenance process.
Alaska Airlines told CBS News that it will take several days to get its network fully operational. It plans to ferry some of its 737 Max 9 jets from where they’ve been inspected to the airports where they will resume commercial service.
Will people want to fly on the 737 Max 9s again?
Alaska Airlines officials said Thursday that they have lost a few sales among people purchasing flights into February — a phenomenon called “booking away” in the airline business. They didn’t say how many people have booked away from the Max 9, but they predicted it would only last a few weeks.
Minicucci, the Alaska CEO, said travelers may initially have “some anxiety” about flying on a Max 9, while saying he expects them to steadily regain confidence that the plane is safe.
Travelers returned to the Boeing 737 Max 8 after two of them crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. After those accidents, Boeing had to redesign an automated flight-control system before the FAA would let Max 8s and Max 9s resume flying after a 20-month grounding.
—With reporting by CBS News’ Kris Van Cleave and the Associated Press.
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These days, you’ll find Peggy Noonan in many places: in front of commencement crowds, at political round tables, and for the past quarter-century, in the opinion section of the Wall Street Journal. But when she was just starting out in Washington, D.C., you could find Noonan at the Off the Record Bar, near her job at the White House. “I would sit over there by myself, I would order a beer or a glass of wine, and I’d just quietly sit and read,” she said.
In 1984, Noonan joined President Ronald Reagan’s staff, after working at CBS in New York. At first, she felt like an outsider in the buttoned-up West Wing, but soon became an acclaimed speechwriter. Early on, she wrote Reagan’s moving speech for D-Day’s 40th anniversary.
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Then, when the Challenger shuttle tragically exploded, Noonan was given a tough assignment: write Reagan’s address to a distraught nation. “I had a feeling of, that didn’t work, nothing worked, because nothing was worthy of that moment; nothing was worthy of that day,” she said. “But then Frank Sinatra called – he called that night to the White House to say, ‘Mr. President, you just said what needed to be said.’ And Frank didn’t call after every speech!”
By the late eighties, Noonan had cemented a reputation as a wordsmith, and Reagan turned to her for his farewell address:
“We made the city stronger, we made the city freer. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.”
George H.W. Bush turned to Noonan, too, as he rallied Republicans on his way to the White House. “You know, part of life is luck,” she said. “It was not lucky to follow dazzling Ronald Reagan and be plainer, seeming sturdy George H.W. Bush. But I believe history was not – certainly in his time – sufficiently fair to him.”
That opinion is one of many found in the pages of her new book, “A Certain Idea of America,” a collection of her recent work (to be published Tuesday by Portfolio).
Portfolio
Asked what her idea of America is today, Noonan replied, “Big, raucous, troubled, frayed.”
Noonan’s columns often delve into questions of character and leadership. “What I do not perceive now is many politicians who are actually saying, Guys, this is not good for the country. We’ve been given this beautiful thing called America. Shine it up! Keep it going!”
Costa said, “You have a lot of fun in this book, doing what you call taking the stick to certain people from time to time.”
“I don’t mind the stick at all,” said Noonan. “When I see something that I think is just awful, I love to get mad at it. I got mad at John Fetterman.”
“You don’t like that he’s wearing shorts?”
“It’s okay with me that he wears shorts,” she replied, “but he is not allowed to change the rules of the U.S. Senate to accommodate him in his little shorts and hoodie because he enjoys dressing like a child.”
Noonan, now 74, grew up in the Democratic strongholds of New York and New Jersey. “And I was very happy with that, because Democrats were cooler than Republicans,” she said. “Democrats were little Bobby Kennedy, and Republicans were, like, Dick Thornburgh!”
But in Reagan, she saw something fresh. “You looked at him, you saw his confidence, and it made you feel optimistic,” she said.
The Gipper, of course, no longer dominates the Republican Party, and President-elect Trump’s victory could transform the GOP even more in the coming years. “In terms of policy, the Republican Party has changed by becoming, not a standard, usual conservative party, but a populist party,” Noonan said. “Its issues have changed very much. But also, the edge of anger and resentment and, I’m afraid, a little paranoia that is in the Republican Party now would be something that Reagan did not recognize.”
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At the Off the Record Bar, the faces on the wall – caricatures of politicians of the past – and at the tables still catch her eye. For Noonan, it’s all part of the story – America’s, and her own.
Costa said, “In a way, you’re still the writer in the corner watching everybody at the bar in Washington.”
“Yeah, I like to watch them, she said. “They’re human, and you bring a little warmth to it, a little humor, and always bring your stick and smack them when you need to! It’s kind of nice.”
READ AN EXCERPT: “A Certain Idea of America” by Peggy Noonan
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Story produced by David Rothman. Editor: Joseph Frandino.
