SEATTLE — With two flights narrowly escaping disaster just months apart, Alaska Airlines was again in the national spotlight over the weekend, this time with a “Saturday Night Live” skit.
Featuring “Saltburn” star Jacob Elordi and “SNL” regulars Kenan Thompson and Heidi Gardner, the skit, which aired last weekend, parodied an Alaska Airlines ad. “Our new slogan is ‘Alaska Airlines: You didn’t die, and you got a cool story,’ “ said Gardner, who played a flight attendant.
The skit follows Alaska’s most recent incidents, which involve a panel blowing out of a 737 MAX 9 as it passed 16,000 feet after taking off from Portland International Airport and an off-duty Alaska pilot allegedly attempting to shut down engines on a flight that was also midair. Had they played out a little differently, either incident could’ve been catastrophic.
While experts say Alaska doesn’t bear the primary responsibility for either incident, the airline needs to steer clear of further incidents to avoid more damage to its reputation.
Alaska, which declined to comment for this article, would otherwise be looking forward to a strong 2024. Its recent move to acquire Hawaiian Airlines will, if approved by regulators, cement its position as the fifth-largest U.S. airline. Having recovered from a pandemic slump, the SeaTac-headquartered airline appeared poised to grow. Instead, it is a punchline for SNL and late night comics.
The most recent incident happened earlier this month when a panel blew out on Alaska Flight 1282 from Portland to Ontario, Calif., the result of a mis-installed door plug on a new 737 MAX 9 jet. The flight diverted back to Portland for an emergency landing. While there were no fatalities, a woman on board said she had to hold on to her 15-year-old son, who was seated one row in front of the hole, as his seat was pulled back toward the exterior of the plane.
Just three months ago, Joseph Emerson, an off-duty pilot sitting in the cockpit on an Everett-to-San Francisco flight by Alaska-owned regional airline Horizon Air, allegedly tried and failed to shut off the plane’s engines. The pilots made an emergency landing in Portland, where Port of Portland police arrested Emerson.
Emerson, who currently faces state and federal charges, allegedly told police and investigators that he was suffering from depression and had taken psychedelic mushrooms two days before the flight.
Thompson said in the “SNL” skit that Alaska was proud to say the Emerson incident was “our second-worst flight.”
The incidents haven’t affected Seattle-based real estate agent Monica Church’s loyalty to Alaska.
She was on an Alaska flight from Seattle to Palm Springs, Calif., after the door plug incident and posted a TikTok video showing her inside the plane looking scared. But in an interview, Church, 28, said Alaska Airlines remains her favorite airline.
Church frequently travels between Seattle and Palm Springs, and said Alaska has the most nonstop flights that she can take. Alaska Airlines is Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s busiest carrier. She said she also has the Alaska credit card and enjoys its perks.
“They’ve always been a consistent airline for me in terms of customer service and what you can expect when you take their flight,” Church said.
Rather than Alaska, she said she has more distrust of Boeing planes. For a recent flight, she looked up the plane manufacturer to see if it was Boeing. It was Embraer. She was on an E175 regional jet.
The good news for Alaska is that the public is not associating the two incidents as an underlying Alaska Airline issue, said Tim Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University.
Calkins said that, while unfortunate for the airline, the “SNL” skit likely won’t affect Alaska’s brand in the long term.
Alaska has a strong brand, he said, that can withstand a few public relations nightmares. But it’s crucial that there are no further incidents.
“For Alaska, the key is that you really want things to go smoothly over the next six months, or a year, so that people regain positive associations,” Calkins said.
Church said she was on an Alaska flight while the news was breaking on the door plug incident. She said she had Wi-Fi onboard and was following the developments. But she wasn’t scared that the panel on her flight would also blow.
“I was just feeling kind of how I feel whenever any unfortunate incident happens in the world, just kind of like, ‘Gosh, how am I always so lucky to be escaping these random occurrences,’ “ Church said.
While the fault likely lies with Boeing, there may have been more Alaska could have done in order to ensure safety before the door plug incident, said Tolga Turgut, an associate professor at the Florida Institute of Technology’s College of Aeronautics.
Turgut referred to three incidents in which warning lights indicating a reduction in cabin pressurization went off on the MAX 9 that saw its door plug fail. The airline voluntarily prohibited that particular plane from making extended flights over water because of those warnings.
While federal investigators have said the warnings were likely unrelated to problems with the door plug that ultimately blew out, Turgut argued that Alaska prioritized revenue over safety by allowing that plane to continue to fly.
“They did the easy and very fast part of remedying the situation,” Turgut said. “But in a better safety culture, they would take their time more to inspect the situation.”
National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy, who on Jan. 8 said the depressurization incidents are likely unrelated to the door plug blowout, said that Alaska’s decision to not let the jet fly over water made sense.
In a Jan. 16 video posted on Alaska’s website, the airline’s CEO Ben Minicucci said Alaska had started inspections of a group of its 737 MAX 9 fleet on Jan. 13 following the Federal Aviation Administration’s direction.
“Aviation safety is based on multiple levels of quality control and safety assurance,” Minicucci said. “Together, these layers have made the U.S. aviation industry the safest in the world. Flight 1282 was an extremely sobering reminder that these layers require continuous strengthening and improvement.”
Alaska found loose bolts on many 737 MAX 9 jets, he said. In an exclusive interview Tuesday with NBC News, Minicucci said, “It makes you mad that we’re finding issues like that on brand-new airplanes.”
Minicucci added that “Boeing is better than this,” and that the Flight 1282 incident should have never happened.
Not paying attention to warning signs can put a company out of business, said Kathleen Fearn-Banks, a University of Washington associate professor of public relations and author of “Crisis Communications: A Casebook Approach.”
“There’s a term in communications, ‘prodrome,’ “ she said. The word is of ancient Greek origin, which means warning sign.
“Near-crises like the two incidents experienced by Alaska Airlines are the strongest prodromes,” Fearn-Banks said.
If there had been any fatalities, Fearn-Banks said, the public might have found that unforgivable.
Still, it’s never been safer to fly in the U.S. According to the National Safety Council, the last time there was a fatality on a U.S. airline because of an aviation accident was 15 years ago. In October, U.S. airlines carried a total of 82.6 million domestic and international passengers, data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows.
Church said she still feels safe flying in airplanes because she reminds herself it’s more dangerous to get in a car.
Turgut said the two incidents might also increase regulatory scrutiny of Alaska’s proposed acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines.
“They appear to have a bit of a safety culture issue within Alaska Airlines,” Turgut said. “Mergers create large organizations, and in larger organizations it gets harder to change” culture.
In its third-quarter earnings released in October, Alaska reported $2.8 billion in total operating revenue, a result nearly unchanged from the same quarter in the previous year. The airline reports its annual earnings today.
