An Alaska Airlines flight had to return to Seattle for an emergency landing after reports of unusual vibration and pieces of the engine falling off the plane.
Many things make passengers on a plane groan out loud, including sighting a baby and having a delay, but hardly anything would cause more grief than seeing pieces of the plane’s engine ripping off during flight!

This was the experience of 176 passengers and six crew members on Alaska Airlines Flight 558 on Tuesday, August 23rd. The crew reported an unusual vibration from the plane’s left side shortly after taking off. 

Passengers reported a little more than that, posting videos and pictures of jagged metal flapping in the winds. In the dramatic videos, part of the metal paneling that covers the engine can be seen flapping in the wind like a bad toupee. Even worse than a hairpiece, the panelling broke off and hurtled away entirely during landing. 

The emergency landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was successful, with no injuries reported. Metal paneling (cowling) that detached during the landing, flying off forcefully, was later recovered. 

In a statement on USA Today, Alaskan Airlines wrote, “The two pilots who operated the flight have more than 32 years of combined flying experience. They and our flight attendants handled the incident with tremendous professionalism and care. We also greatly appreciated the patience of our guests during this event.” 

Sure, patience is great, but pieces of metal flying off the engine is a little more than a “thank you for your patience” moment. The travelers should have at least gotten a bag of peanuts or something.

As scary as this is, no one was hurt. Although Alaska Airlines was careful to speak through media representatives, they posted a tweet saying, “Safety First! Did you know that your pilot walks around the aircraft as a final inspection before every single flight?”

If so, we have questions about how they missed a chunk of metal waving “Hi!”
It’s not the first time something like this has happened. In February 2021, a United Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing after experiencing engine failure. Not only did that super important part fail, but parts of the engine seemed to drop down over homes. Luckily, no one was hurt in that incident. 

The aircraft in this story, a Boeing 737-900ER, will be out of service while the airline safety team investigates.