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17 January, 2024

Ryanair boss says passengers are safe despite sending engineers to Boeing facilities after mid-air emergency

Manchester Airport, United Kingdom - 24 April, 2022: Ryanair Boeing 737 (EI-DPZ) welcoming passengers for flight FR4096 to Riga, Latvia.

Edited by Travel Weekly

Ryanair has sent a team of its engineers to Boeing’s United States factories responsible for constructing its 737 Max aircraft after an Alaskan Airline aircraft suffered a mid-air emergency door ‘blowout’

Flight AS1282 made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport earlier this month after a hole approximately the size of a refrigerator emerged in the side of the plane, causing the cabin to depressurise.

There was no report of serious injuries following the incident.

Boeing president and CEO, Dave Calhoun, has commented that fault lay at the hands of his manufacturing team, “We’re going to approach it with 100 per cent and complete transparency every step of the way,” he, said.

Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary has ‘deployed’ a team of engineers to oversee the airline’s current order of 57 Boeing aircraft.

Speaking to Sky News, O’Leary reassured Ryanair customers that they are safe onboard its aircraft.

“We don’t fly the MAX 9 so the issue doesn’t apply, there’s none of those aircraft in Europe,’ he said.

“Boeing make great aircraft. The 737 is the most audited aircraft in history, it’s the oldest and most secure plane in the air, we’re very proud to fly them and we’ve had no kickback or pushback from passengers flying on our aircraft.

“Ryanair sent a team to Seattle last week, we’ve met with the senior management, they’ve asked us to put more engineers on the ground in Seattle, which we’ve agreed to do.

“And they’ve also committed to putting more engineers that are sitting on top of quality control and quality assurance as the aircraft come off the product or the production facility.”

On 15 January, ANA Flight 1182 was on its way from Sapporo to Toyama but returned to the Sapporo-New Chitose airport after a crack was discovered on the outer layer of glass on the four layers of the cockpit window. An airline spokesperson confirmed that there were no injuries among the 59 passengers and six crew.

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