PUTRAJAYA, Jan 12 — The Ministry of Transport has yet to get any concrete information on the emergency door plug found in the backyard of a schoolteacher in Portland, Oregon after it blew off the Boeing 737 Max 9 in the United States several days ago.
The door plug was seen having handwritten inventory information, as well as the note “Made in Malaysia” next to the serial number of the part after it was discovered by American teacher Bob Sauer in his backyard.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said as of today he had yet to receive any information on it.
“As for that we got no information and I can't comment. It's not under my purview (the investigation) and I can only give a general comment. We don't know if it's true or real. We found that it was a report made by an observer.
“If there is an official report from the airline company we will ask to look into it and ask the CAAM (Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia) to handle it,” he said.
It was reported that the door had torn off from an altitude of about 16,000 feet (4,877 m), falling on the school teacher's tree-filled backyard near the suburb that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had identified as its possible landing spot.
The airline company in question is Alaska Airlines. This incident prompted the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to ground 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9s operated by US airlines or in US territory for safety checks.
The incident happened seven minutes after the plane took off from Oregon in the US — a door plug on the fuselage of Alaska Airlines aircraft blew out. This depressurised the plane, causing oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling. A gaping hole was also left on the side of the plane.
A door plug seals unused emergency exits on planes, and looks similar to a normal window. The two seats next to the door plug that tore off on the Alaska Airlines plane were empty at the time.
None of the 171 passengers, including four unaccompanied minors, three babies seated in their caregivers’ laps, and six crew members, were seriously injured during the incident.
The flight took off from Portland International Airport at around 5.00pm (0100 GMT Saturday) before returning safely after the crew reported a pressurisation issue.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators suggested Monday night that the part was not affixed adequately.
