MYSTERY surrounds the ‘Made in Malaysia’ black marker pen writings on the emergency door plug of the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 Flight 1282, after the component flew apart mid-flight last Saturday.
Social media is riddled with comments on whether such an inscription can be marked with a black marker pen instead of it being imprinted on the plug door.
Things are further complicated as the company which allegedly produced the plug door, has yet to respond to media inquiries over the matter.
Telephone calls to the company reached a dead-end, while it is believed that top executives were also not in when the calls were placed.
Some netizens also commented that the plug door may have been made in Malaysia, but was not bolted nor assembled here to the Boeing Max aircraft.
"So the accident would not have anything to do with the door plug manufacturer."
Another alleged that it was handwritten based on Boeing requirements, as aircraft parts are not produced in volume and improvements are made regularly.
A veteran commercial pilot related to The Vibes that he has not come across aircraft panels and equipment, which had black markers in any of the aircrafts he flew.
Earlier, Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said that he would ask the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) to look into it if there is any official report from the airline.
Earlier reports said a schoolteacher, Bob Sauer, who found the door plug that fell onto a tree in his compound, took photographs of the object.
Among the details that he gave the American authorities and the media was that he had read the manufacturing details written on the object, a part of the plane’s fuselage.
According to a report by the Oregon Public Broadcasting on its news portal (www.opb.org), Sauer said the details clearly said that it was manufactured in Malaysia.
The report added that he was intrigued to see the door plug’s serial number and other manufacturing details handwritten on the door in permanent marker.
Despite the horrors of depressurisation after the plug door came unhinged and blew off after the flight was in mid-air, the pilots managed to land the aircraft at the Portland International Airport in the United States last Friday.
CNN reported that a class action lawsuit was filed in Washington state against Boeing on behalf of the passengers aboard last week’s Alaska Airlines flight 1282.
According to the lawsuit, the event physically injured some passengers and emotionally traumatised most if not all aboard.
The violence of the event bruised the bodies of some” and “passengers were shocked, terrorised and confused, thrust into a waking nightmare, hoping they would live long enough to walk the earth again." - The Vibes, January 12, 2024.
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