Alaska Airlines plane lands in Portland after losing window

BBC News:

A passenger plane lost a section of its fuselage in mid-air, forcing it to make an emergency landing in the US state of Oregon on Friday.

The Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 returned to Portland 35 minutes into its flight to California after an outer section, including a window, fell.

Alaska said 177 passengers and crew were on board and “landed safely”.

The airline said it would “temporarily” ground all 65 of its 737 Max 9 aircraft to conduct inspections.

The US Federal Aviation Agency said the plane “returned safely… after the crew reported a pressurisation issue”.

Boeing said it was aware of the incident and was “working to gather more information”.

“A Boeing technical team stands ready to support the investigation,” it said.

According to flight tracking websites Flightaware and FlightRadar24, the plane was a Boeing 737 Max 9.

Alaska Airlines said the incident happened shortly after departure and that the plane had landed safely back in Portland.

“While this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation,” the airline said.

It was flying at more than 16,000ft (4,876m) when it began its emergency descent, according to flight tracking data.