Air accidents
Part of the wall fell off of an airplane. While it was flying. I would have assumed that would be hard. Like I would have assumed the wall of the plane is stuck on there pretty good
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/alaska-airlines-grounds-boeing-737-9-aircraft-wind-blew-out-1.7076487
Air accidents
@mcc while I was reading in bed last night I came across an aviation nerd who pointed out that this blanking panel was put there for Alaska Airlines' specific flight configuration, and normally there's a whole emergency exit there. and the process for swapping the panel is done in a way that avoids requiring aircraft recertification. hmm, now where have I heard Boeing say that before?
Air accidents
@gsuberland @mcc wait a minute. One can remove emergency exits from a plane ?
Air accidents
That plane had versions with different numbers of seats. IIUC more populated versions need more than standard front, overwing, and back exits, so they have additional exits behind wings. For lower population versions they have multiple options there: an exit, more temporary way to blank it off, and a less temporary way to blank it off. I guess that the reason not to have a nonrequired exit is to simplify maintenance and operations (one pair of slides less).
Air accidents
@robryk @dlatchx @gsuberland yeah I think when you have more exits you're required to have more flight attendants? For the obvious reason