Malaysia is somehow embroiled in yet another aviation-related incident, this time for a flight that took off over 13,000km away and has nothing to do with our country.
Or so it seems.
The incident in question is of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 which made headlines worldwide after its door plug was torn off mid-flight over southwestern Portland in Oregon, USA on 5 January.
Thankfully, as reported by The Guardian the flight was able to safely return to Portland International Airport and make an emergency landing, with all 171 passengers and 6 crew members escaping serious injuries.
In a report by the Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), it was revealed that the door plug of the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft was found on a tree in the backyard of school teacher Bob Sauer’s home in Portland.
In one of the photos shared by Sauer and published by OPB regarding the finding, a closeup of the door plug showed that there are handwritten inscriptions of its serial number and other manufacturing details on the door plug itself.
Most notably, it also clearly showed a handwritten inscription of “Made in Malaysia” on it. Sauer told OPB,
“That’s an interesting way of doing inventory control.”
Of course, the fact that the door plug has a handwritten inscription saying that it was manufactured in our country raises a lot of questions, especially for us Malaysians.
OPB noted that Boeing, the manufacturer of the aircraft, couldn’t address the reason behind there being handwritten inscriptions on the door plug due to the active investigation by USA’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
As reported by the BBC, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun admitted that Boeing was at fault for the incident. On Saturday (6 January), USA’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded 171 Boeing jets in the country that were installed with the same door plug.
WORLD OF BUZZ has since reached out to the Malaysian Ministry of Transport (MOT) for comments on the “Made in Malaysia” inscription on the door plug.
As of the time of writing, MOT replied that there are currently no updates from their side on the matter. We’ll keep you up to date should there be any new developments.
So, what do you guys think of the whole situation? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Also read: M’sian Student Pilot Shares What a Day in His Life Looks Like & It’s Absolutely Fascinating!
