Kayak has a lot of neat features that make traveling easy, including one that allows you to filter out a certain type of plane that ripped a little boy’s shirt off when its door blew out 16,000 feet in the air. That feature has seen a 15-fold increase in usage since Alaska Airlines’ Boeing 737 Max 9 gave the whole plane an unexpected window seat.
“Following the spike in usage, Kayak moved its filter up so it’s more prominent for travelers when searching for a flight,” a spokesperson told Gizmodo on Monday. “The company also added the ability to filter specifically by the 737 Max 8 and Max 9 aircraft models especially as Max 8 aircrafts are still in flight.”
Kayak won’t exactly say it, but they’re giving users more features to avoid the Boeing 737 Max, which has many flyers concerned for their safety. The travel company originally introduced this filter in March 2019, the same month a 737 Max from Ethiopian Airlines crashed and killed all the passengers and crew on board. That incident followed another fatal 737 Max crash a year earlier in Indonesia. Five years have passed, but we’re still discussing the questionable construction and maintenance of Boeing’s planes.
All models of the faulty Alaska Airlines plane (737 Max 9) are currently grounded, but Boeing’s other planes are facing new scrutiny. A U.S. agency asked all airlines to inspect a different Boeing model on Monday to “ensure the door is properly secured,” said a statement seen by The New York Times. The Federal Aviation Administration says the 737-900ER models had not yet been a problem, but do have the same door design as the now-grounded Boeing planes. So maybe there’s more than one plane you need to filter out.
The filters from Kayak are a thoughtful solution to an entirely ridiculous situation. Consumers should not need to filter out potentially unsafe planes in a highly regulated industry like air travel. If you’d like to avoid Boeing planes altogether, good luck. There are only two airplane manufacturers that nearly every American flies on, Boeing and Airbus. Being choosy with what planes you fly on will significantly reduce your options and increase your price, but it depends on how much you trust Boeing’s doors.
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