PORTLAND, Ore. — Alaska Airlines and Boeing's share prices fell sharply Monday in the first trading session after a large panel on one of its 737 Max 9 jets blew out on a flight traveling from Portland to Ontario, California on Friday night.
Boeing’s stock slipped nearly 7%, dragging the Dow Jones Industrial Average down in the market with a loss of 77 points (0.2%). Spirit Aerosystems, which made the door plug that was torn from the plane, fell about 8%. Alaska Airlines stocks dropped almost 5% on Monday morning.
The Alaska Airlines flight traveling from Portland lost the mid-cabin door plug midair, forcing the plane to turn back around and make an emergency landing at Portland International Airport (PDX). None of the 171 passengers and six crew members aboard were seriously injured.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered all Boeing 737 Max 9 aircrafts to be grounded until they can be carefully expected. The order applies to 171 planes around the world. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.
United Airlines and Alaska Airlines, the heaviest users of Boeing's 737 Max 9 jet, canceled more than 350 flights on Monday, which is about 8% of United's schedule and 20% of Alaska's, according to Flight Aware.
The Alaska Airlines incident is the latest in a long string of problems for Boeing since 2019. It grounded another version of the Max, 737 Max 8, after it was involved in two separate crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
Boeing reported an annual loss for four straight years from 2019 to 2022, as well as a $2.2 billion net loss for the first nine months of last year. Its full-year results for 2023 are due at the end of January.
