Reporting on a midflight near-disaster

Beat Check with The Oregonian

A terrifying mid-flight emergency forced an Alaska Airlines plane back to Portland Jan. 5 and launched an investigation that temporarily grounded fleets of Boeing 737 Max 9 passenger jets nationwide.

Miraculously, nobody on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 was critically hurt when a “door plug” — a wall panel that’s used as an emergency exit on some planes but just a window on others — suddenly blew off, leaving a hole. The cabin depressurized, and passengers put on oxygen masks while the plane dropped to a lower altitude before making an emergency landing at PDX.

Reporters Zane Sparling and Maxine Bernstein were among the team of journalists who spoke to investigators and shaken passengers. On this episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian, they talk about their experiences working on the story.

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