The depressurisation forced the flight, bound for Ontario, California, to make an emergency landing at Oregon 35 minutes after taking off. It had reached an altitude of about 16,000ft (4,876 metres) when it was forced to begin its descent.
All 171 passengers and six crew members on board survived, with no serious injuries.
More than 170 Boeing 737 Max 9 models in the United States have been grounded since the incident, in which phones, magazines and the shirt off a child’s back were sucked out of the plane and into the night air.
Cockpit’s voice recorder taped over
Door plugs are panels in the side of a plane, and in certain configurations can be used as an emergency exit if there is a large number of passengers on board.
“We’re going to go pick that up and make sure that we begin analysing it,” Ms Homendy said, but added that the cockpit’s voice recorder had been taped over.
“That is unfortunately a loss for us because that information is key, not just for our investigation, but for improving aviation safety,” she said.
The UK’s Civil…
