Boeing pays Alaska Airlines $160 million in compensation for blowout of panel during flight

Alaska Airlines said Boeing has paid the carrier $160 million in “initial compensation” for a panel that blew out of an Alaska Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner in January.

The airline said Thursday that it expects additional compensation, the terms of which it said are confidential.

The payment covered Alaska’s pretax loss related to the accident, including lost revenue and the cost of returning its Max 9 fleet to service after the planes were grounded for three weeks.

The airline described the compensation in a regulatory filing.

Boeing declined to comment on the case. A spokesman referred to comments the company’s chief financial officer, Brian West, made last month.

“Customer consideration” after the accident will affect Boeing’s financial results, he said but didn’t give any numbers.

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A panel that plugs a gap left for an extra emergency exit blew off an Alaska Max 9 as it flew 16,000 feet over Oregon on Jan. 5. Pilots were able to land safely, and no one was injured.

Alaska quickly grounded its other Max 9s, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) followed by grounding all Max 9s in the United States — affecting Alaska and United Airlines. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating, and the Justice Department is examining whether the incident violated the terms of a settlement that Boeing reached in 2021 to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading regulators who certified Max jets for flights.

Boeing may have to pay other customers

Alaska’s filing could foreshadow Boeing payments to other customers over the grounding and delays in the production and delivery of new aircraft. United is asking pilots to take unpaid time off next month — a plea the airline said could extend into the fall — because of delays in getting new planes it ordered from Boeing.