
Alaska Airlines cancels all flights on 737 Max 9 planes through Saturday
CBSN
Alaska Airlines said Wednesday it is canceling all flights scheduled on Boeing 737 Max 9 planes through January 13 as the carrier continues to investigate a mid-air incident last week in which a part fell off one of its jets and forced an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon.
Alaska Air, which along with United Airlines is one of two U.S. carriers that uses the Max 9 planes, has scrapped hundreds of trips since the "door plug" blew off Flight 1282 as it was flying to Ontario, Canada. No one was hurt on the plane, which carried 174 passengers and six crew members.
As of Wednesday afternoon the company had cancelled an additional 121 flight, or 19% of its daily scheduled departures, according to tracking website FlightAware.

In the past year, over 135 million passengers traveled to the U.S. from other countries. To infectious disease experts, that represents 135 million chances for an outbreak to begin. To identify and stop the next potential pandemic, government disease detectives have been discreetly searching for viral pathogens in wastewater from airplanes. Experts are worried that these efforts may not be enough.