Alaska Airlines grounds Boeing 737-9 planes after midair window blowout on flight from Portland

Alaska Airlines is grounding all Boeing 737-9 aircraft after midair window blowout on flight from Portland, Oregon, according to news agency AP.

This came after an Alaska Airlines flight made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport in Oregon on Friday evening after experiencing what the federal authorities described as a midair pressure problem that passengers said blew out a chunk of the fuselage.

The airline said that Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 had made a safe emergency landing carrying 171 passengers and six crew members after returning to the Portland airport shortly after takeoff for Ontario, California.

“Following tonight's event on Flight 1282, we have decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft,” Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci was quoted as saying by AP.

(With inputs from NYT)