Alaska Airlines flight arrives in Portland with cargo door OPEN sparking more Boeing safety concerns as passengers launch $1BILLION lawsuit over mid-air fuselage blow out over January 5 incident

An Alaska Airlines plane was found with an open cargo door once it landed in Portland, sparking fresh Boeing safety concerns. 

Alaska Airlines Flight 1437 from Los Cabos, Mexico, arrived at Portland International Airport last week with a cargo door slightly ajar.  

Photos obtained by KOIN 6 show the Boeing 737 after landing at Portland, in which the door can be seen cracked open.

It's unclear how long the door was open for, but the flight did not require an emergency landing.

There was no indication that the door was open during the flight, according to crew members, which points to the door opening after landing. 

An Alaska Airlines flight arrived in Portland with the door to its cargo space where passengers' pets were inside left slightly ajar

Pets belonging to passengers were being held inside the cargo area however it is not believed any were injured as a result of the door 

Last week, Alaska Airlines Flight 1437 from Los Cabos, Mexico, arrived at Portland International Airport with an open door 

Photos obtained by KOIN 6 show the Boeing 737 after landing at Portland, in which the door is ajar 

'Upon landing at PDX on March 1, Alaska Airlines flight 1437 was discovered to have the forward cargo door unsealed. 

'There was no indication to the crew that the door was unsealed during flight and all indications point to the door partially opening after landing. 

'Our maintenance teams inspected the aircraft, replaced a spring in the door, tested the door and reentered it into service.'

Pets belonging to passengers were inside the cargo space, however there have not been any reports of injuries. 

The incident was described as a 'pretty major defect' by Aviation expert Joe Schwieterman.

'It affects a lot of the electrical equipment in that cargo hold. So, it is troublesome that you may have a plane where some things like this went undetected,' he told KOIN 6. 

The expert said that such a defect should have triggered a sensor, which it didn't appear to.  

Last week's unnerving incident came just one day after another Alaska Airlines flight was forced to return to Portland's PDX after multiple passengers said they could smell fumes in the cabin. 

Last week's unnerving incident came just one day after another Alaska Airlines Phoenix-bound flight was forced to return to Portland's PDX after multiple passengers said they could smell fumes in the cabin 

The crew of Flight 646 declared an emergency after passengers in the rear of the plane reported smelling 'some fumes or an odor' (File Photo)

The Phoenix-bound flight was investigated by fire crews from the Port of Portland Portland Fire and Rescue to determine the cause of the smell.

Crew members on Flight 646 declared an emergency after passengers in the rear of the plane reported smelling 'some fumes or an odor'. 

Investigators were unable to identify a cause, officials say.

Seven people onboard, including passengers and crew members, requested medical evaluation after the worrying fumes and one was taken to hospital.

On Monday, a Boeing jet's engines exploded and burst into flames in the skies above Texas forcing an emergency landing.

The terrifying incident took place just minutes into a United Airlines flight bound for Fort Myers, Florida.

Video taken from a passenger window shows white-hot flashes streaming out of the  737's jet engine.

Several class-action lawsuits are ongoing after a door plug blew off an Alaskan Airlines flight that left from Portland on January 5 

The door plug was recovered from the back yard of a home after it blew out on January 5

Several class-action lawsuits are ongoing after a door plug blew off an Alaskan Airlines flight that left from Portland on January 5. 

The Flight 1282 blowout as the plane left a gaping hole in the side of the aircraft, and prompted wide-ranging federal investigations into Boeing's production process.

A report found that four retaining bolts intended to prevent vertical movement of the door plug were missing, and suggests that Boeing workers failed to replace them after removing the plug for a repair during assembly. 

The damage patterns observed in the door plug and airframe indicated that the four bolts were not in place at the time of the incident, allowing the plug to detach from the stop pads.