National Transportation Safety Board

A major wildfire is raging out of control in northern California, which in three days has become one of the largest ever recorded in this western US state, authorities said yesterday, Saturday.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has recommended that airlines inspect door plugs on Boeing 737-900ER jets after a blowout on another type of aircraft with a similar mid-cabin exit earlier this month.

Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun took responsibility on Tuesday for a near-catastrophic Alaska Airlines incident last week, vowing "complete transparency" as the aviation giant tries to pivot from its latest crisis.

United and Alaska Airlines both reported on Jan. 8 that loose hardware had been discovered on some of their Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes during preliminary inspections after a dramatic mid-flight incident last week.

A mid-air emergency in which a piece of fuselage came off a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jetliner as it flew over the U.S. west coast dealt a new blow to the oft-beleaguered manufacturer.

However, the consequences for Boeing are expected to be limited.

On Saturday the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of 171 planes of that model so they can be inspected.

The U.S. air safety regulator said Saturday that it was grounding some Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets pending inspections, a day after a panel blew out of one of the planes over the western state of Oregon.

The Federal Aviation Administration "is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight," the agency said on X.

Overview of the site of the 2021 Alaska Airbus AS350 B3 helicopter crash from the NTSB preliminary report. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The U.S. transportation regulator announced a special investigation on March 7 into the safety record of Norfolk Southern Railway, a month after one of its trains derailed and released toxic chemicals in an Ohio town.

Blue Origin's maiden crewed flight on Tuesday involves four people who will cross the Karman line, which separates Earth's atmosphere from space, for the very first time.

Here is a brief look at the quartet of soon-to-be astronauts.

The helicopter carrying Czech billionaire Petr Kellner, 56, just missed clearing an Alaskan ridge by three to five metres when it crashed, preliminary investigations show.

Mr Kellner, who is worth an estimated US$17.5 billion (A$23 billion) according to Forbes, was one of five passengers on board the fatal flight on Saturday (local time).