Anyone else rethinking exit rows after the MAX 9 incident?
 

Ever since the Alaska 737 MAX 9 incident, I have found myself having an emotional reaction to my normal seat-of-choice, the exit row window (21A or 21F on UA). Has anyone else noticed this? It could be on several levels:

• 737 MAX 9 - albeit mitigated by specific inspections
• 737-900 - same body (and plug door) as the MAX 9 with a much longer track records of no incidents, but questions about design give me pause
• Any 737 MAX - thinking about overall Boeing manufacturing and QC
• Any plane - as rare/unlikely as this is, window seats next to a door are not where you would want to be!

I know this is not largely a logical reaction, when looking at the track records (first I have ever heard of a door blowing off mid-flight), odds, safeguards, oversight, etc. And, for now, I still have flights coming up where I am in 21A or 21F, which I KNOW are not the same as plug doors. But I find myself pausing a bit.

Anyone else?

(I had mentioned this very early on the United 737 MAX 9 thread, but I realize this is an issue bigger and not specific to United, so posted here.)

Nope. The percentage odds on the door or a plug blowing out while I'm in the seat are infinitesimal. The odds on me having more legroom sitting in an exit row are 100 percent.

Not to mention the fact that it's slightly less infinitesimal that you might wind up in a burning aircraft on the ground. Knowing that no one is between me and the emergency exit is peace of mind.

The number of people killed by doors blowing out or peeling off (UA811) or shrapnel from uncontained engine failures penetrating the fuselage is dwarfed by the number of people who survived quick emergency evacuations of burning aircraft.

This is actually a very helpful perspective for me. Thank you.

Exit rows do not have a bolted in plug door. (defeats the purpose of exit doors)
Been millions of flights with people sitting beside an exit row emergency door.

Just booked exit row on a 737-900. It's just not a worry at all. Now, would I sit in row 29 or 30 on Delta's 737-900? No, but that's because their -900 economy section has awful legroom, and the plug at those rows messes up the window spacing to boot.
That said, I hold some thin reed of hope that Boeing has so screwed up the Max10 certification timeline that Delta gives up on their disappointing order of 100 copies (UA has publicly said that have no confidence of a timeline for delivery of theirs). The Max10 I expect to be another uncomfortable sardine can.
​​

Most exit doors are designed so that the cabin pressure forces them to stay closed, so they cannot possibly "blow out." The plugs were designed with cost savings in mind, which is why they did not bother engineering such a safety feature into them. No way I'm passing up on extra leg room for the infinitesimal chance of an incident. While it seems like this fact gets beaten to death, it is worth repeating: you are exponentially more likely to be involved in an accident on the way to/from the airport than on an actual plane.

The door plug exists to close off an exit not being used even in the case of emergency. The functioning emergency exits weren't part of the defect, grounding, or inspection. So no, It wouldn't remotely cross my mind to avoid the exit row.

The OP is conflating an emergency exit, which as noted is pressure positive from the interior and one knows where it is located with a door plug which is fixed into place and cannot be opened. Further while a door plug can be seen from the exterior, it can not be seen from the interior. Finally, depending on the aircraft and just like all aircraft exits, the location relative to seat row varies.

So to answer the OP question, no because the two are not related.


I should add that door plugs are designed for aircraft customization. Some buyers will order the plane to hold X passengers. If X is above a certain limit then additional exits are required. If X is below the limit then few exits are required. From an engineering perspective door plugs are fixed into place and for manufacturing it is easier to have them installed from the outside. As such, are not self sealing. From what I have learned the bolts used have wire tie heads. For the bolts to come out this step would have been missed. However, it sounds as though there were no bolts.

Sitting next to an exit door pretty much guarantees you will not be sitting next to a plugged door.

Super helpful to know about door design. I thought that might be the case but didn't know. And as I said on the OP, this is only a function of knowledge. But information like that is definitely helpful.

No worry at all about safety. But I don't particularly like exit row window seats. They are often cold, sometimes narrow, sometimes have less leg space because of the door, and sometimes missing an armrest.

Exit row aisle? Zero hesitancy booking that at all.

(ER doc & Navy Flight Surgeon - retired) All excellent points. Additionally, seats in front of exit row can NOT recline into exit row space.

Aisle seat only as a far distant second choice; too many shoulder bruises and (backpack) face slaps and worry about spilled coffee as a flight attendant hands it to the dufus person sitting in the middle or window seat and too many people climbing over. (Far more comfortable to be the (occasional) climber than the climbee 😊.)

The debate as to the safest seat (location) on an airplane is never ending, some crashes the front is safest, some crashes back is safest, some the middle. However, what’s not debatable is that the vast majority of crash survivors get out of the wreck THEMSELVES without assistance, few survivors have been pulled or carried out by another person (passenger OR bystander OR first responder). Thus, proximity to an exit (emergency or otherwise) is important.

Additionally, many (aircraft) interior materials produce toxic fumes when burning, another reason to get out ASAP.

Also, slightly lower possibility of a POS (person of size) in the adjacent seat spilling into exit row seat space. Unfortunately many flight attendants ignore the fact that most obese people are not able to quickly get up (or out) from an airplane seat and thus marginally (if at all) able to assist and would instead become obstacles.

Only for a millisecond, it’s still far and away the safest and most comfortable economy seat on almost every commercial airplane.

If you're buckled in, you should be ok. I think the difficulty would be breathing because your oxygen mask would be hard to keep on with all the random loose objects flying by you out the open door, possibly snagging the tubing. But yeah... highly unlikely that it would happen again.