SEATTLE — There were 81 flight cancellations at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Monday morning after the grounding of the 737 Max 9 jet over the weekend.
Of those, 77 of the flights are operated by Alaska Airlines. Alaska canceled hundreds of flights out of SEA over the weekend. Seattle is the primary hub for the company.
The 737 Max 9 planes were grounded for inspection after an Alaska Airlines plane suffered a blowout that left a gaping hole in the side of the fuselage.
The jetliner blew out a window and a portion of its fuselage shortly after takeoff 3 miles above Oregon late Friday, creating a gaping hole that forced the pilots to make an emergency landing as its 174 passengers and six crew members donned oxygen masks.
The required inspections take around four to eight hours per aircraft and affect about 171 airplanes worldwide. As of Saturday morning, inspections on more than a quarter of the fleet were complete "with no concerning findings," the company said.
"It was like the perfect storm for everything to go bad,” Kalina said. "Horror story after horror story. I've been traveling since, Austrian time, 6 in the morning."
At this point, Kalina started her trip days ago. Vienna to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Seattle, and now, she waits for Seattle to Maui.
"My luggage is lost," Kalina said. "I have medication in there that I have not taken. If someone has a really major problem, what? Do they die? You can't get your medicine. I'm in the hotel. I have nothing to wear. I wash my socks. I wash my underwear. That's what I have to wear."
While delays and cancellations left people like Kalina stranded, others arrived in Seattle on time but without their luggage.
"They did ground flights from Kona to Seattle and so I think the flights were overloaded so some of the luggage didn't make it on,” Sara Arthur said as she waited in the Alaska baggage line Sunday afternoon.
More cancellations and delays are possible this upcoming week. Kalina just wants this ordeal to be over.
"I've been traveling since 1976, never had anything like this happen to me,” Kalina said. "You know, at this point, I'm going to stay home. Keep my ass at home. I ain't going anywhere."
Along with having to wait for hours to be rebooked, Kalina, like other passengers, had to come back to the airport for hotel vouchers. Kalina said some of her fellow passengers had issues with the vouchers and at least one man slept in a hotel lobby.
Kalina was scheduled on a Sunday afternoon flight after initially being told she wouldn’t be able to leave until Tuesday. She’s planning to post online about her experience.