US aviation officials ground Boeing 737 planes after fuselage blowout on Alaska Airlines flight

The US Federal Aviation Administration ordered the immediate grounding of Boeing 737-9 Max jetliners after the window of an Alaska Airlines plane blew off mid-flight, leaving a gaping hole in the side of its fuselage.

Required inspections will take around four to eight hours per aircraft and will affect about 171 planes worldwide.

The aircraft was travelling from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, when a window and a chunk of fuselage blew out shortly after takeoff on Friday, 5 January.

The plane carrying 174 passengers landed safely back at Portland International Airport at 5:26pm, having departed at 5:06pm.