Portland-bound Alaska Airlines Flight Suffers Cracked Windshield

An Alaska Airlines flight from Washington National, DC to Portland experienced a cracked windshield whilst on descent into Portland airport on 17 March.

Alaska Airlines flight AS9, a Boeing 737-800 operating from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (PDA) reported the cracked windshield issue whilst conducting the descent.

Alaska Airlines AS9 Washington-Portland

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a confirming statement following the incident. “Alaska Airlines Flight 9 landed safely at Portland International Airport in Oregon around 9 p.m. local time on March 17 after the crew reported a cracked windshield.”

“The Boeing 737 departed from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.” The incident will now be the subject of an FAA investigation.

Flight data shows that Alaska Airlines flight AS9 had made a normal on-time departure out of Washington PDA at 18:41 local time on Sunday evening.

The flight then set course and climbed to FL360 (36,000 feet) for the westerly service to Portland International Airport (PDX).

Report on Descent PDX

Having reported the issue whilst in the descent phase, the flight continued under normal operating procedures. Flight crew did not declare a formal emergency and the flight landed RWY 28L without incident.

Boeing 737-800 N588AS

The aircraft operating the scheduled service to Portland was a Boeing 737-800 registered N588AS.

This is a 16-year-old narrowbody airframe belonging to the US carrier Alaska Airlines.

N588AS originally commenced operations with Alaska Airlines in December 2007. The aircraft has been in service its initial delivery from the factory.

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