Alaska Air announced Friday it has grounded its fleet of 65 Boeing 737 MAX-9 jets after a plane lost a section of its fuselage midair.
The Friday night incident should generate a market response on Monday when Boeing stock opens for trading, considering investors’ long, complicated history with the MAX.
Flight 1282 took off from Portland, Ore., at about 8 p.m. on Jan. 5, lost a window, and was able to return safely to the Portland airport, the airline said.
“My heart goes out to those who were on this flight,” said Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci in a news release. “I am so sorry for what you experienced. I am so grateful for the response of our pilots and flight attendants. We have teams on the ground in Portland assisting passengers and are working to support guests who are traveling in the days ahead.”
Alaska is working with Boeing and the National Transportation Safety Board and expects inspections of the fleet to be completed in a few days.
“We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” said Boeing in a Saturday statement. “We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer. A Boeing technical team stands ready to support the investigation.”
Boeing didn’t immediately respond to Barron’s request for comment about potential root causes of the problem.
The MAX jet was grounded worldwide between March 2019 and November 2024 following two deadly crashes within five months. Those crashes were blamed on flight control software known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS.
Both crashes, Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, involved MAX-8 jets. So called “dash-eight” jets are a little shorter than the “dash-nine” variant involved in Friday’s Alaska Airlines incident.
Boeing doesn’t break down its MAX deliveries by jet variant on its delivery website. The company has delivered almost 1,400 MAX jets to date and has some 4,000 MAX jets in its delivery backlog.
Boeing delivered 374 MAX jets in 2022 and 343 in 2023 through November. The aerospace company has been working through supply-chain problems and production slowdowns — and is aiming to ramp up MAX jets production in 2024.
Demand for the MAX, and all commercial jets, has been strong lately as air travel continues to recover from pandemic-induced lows. Boeing stock is up 17% over the past 12 months, while shares of its rival Airbus are up about 20%. The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500, meanwhile, are up about 37% and 21%, respectively.
At $249 a share, Boeing stock is still down roughly 44% from its record high of about $446 — which it reached in March 2019 before the MAX grounding.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com