As someone who is genuinely horrified of airplanes, flying through the air in a metal tube at an impossibly high altitude and speed is terrifying enough without worrying about whether or not someone has tightened all of the bolts on your plane before it leaves the ground.
However, it appears Boeing has not received this memo.
This comes in the wake of a nightmare incident that occurred with the airline on Jan. 5, wherein a panel blew out of one such aircraft mid-flight, shocking the passengers on board and leading many to post about the frightening ordeal on TikTok and X:
It was later reported that a “defective door plug” caused the blowout and emergency landing when it “fell off during the flight’s ascent.”
Of the revelation regarding the “many loose bolts,” Minicucci stated, “I’m more than frustrated and disappointed. I am angry. This happened to Alaska Airlines. It happened to our guests and happened to our people. And my demand on Boeing is what are they going to do to improve their quality programs in-house.”
This has also led Alaska Airlines to ground their fleet of Boeing 737 Max 9 planes for the time being, which meant thousands of travelers saw their flights unexpectedly canceled due to the sudden shortage of aircrafts available—though I’d have to imagine they prefer that to the alternative of FLYING ON A PLANE THAT MIGHT HAVE “LOOSE BOLTS.”
Anyway, the “loose bolts” quote made the rounds on X because of course it did, and people were quick to joke about the absurdity of it all:
A memo reported by Reuters has revealed that as of last week, Boeing is pressing supplies to further examine and fix these issues—but, in the meantime:
