A school teacher named Bob found the missing Boeing 737 Max 9 fuselage door plug in his garden in Portland, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
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Investigators had been searching for the door plug since it blew off the Alaska Airlines plane after taking off from Portland on Friday.
The agency had asked for the public’s help finding the part and had planned to use a helicopter or drones to continue the search.
Jennifer Homendy, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, said locating the missing part would provide key clues as to why it was torn off the plane.
Investigators are now preparing to interview the flight crew, she said.
Read more on the incident
The horror incident led to the grounding of more than 170 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft and a wave of flight cancellations.
Boeing’s CEO is also set to is hold a company-wide safety meeting.
The Alaska Airlines flight, which left Portland, Oregon for Ontario, California, at 4.40pm on Friday was plunged into chaos less than an hour into its journey.
Stunned passengers described seeing a large section of the plane blown out mid-air with dramatic pictures of the aftermath showing a gaping hole in its side.
One passenger told Fox News affiliate KPTV a child had to be held in his seat by his mum as people lost their phones as they were sucked out of the plane.
Another child closest to the damage lost his shirt due to the violent depressurisation.
Shocking footage on TikTok captured the chaos, showing passengers using emergency oxygen masks as the plane was still in the air.
Part of the missing plane was seen in the video with the night sky visible just a few feet from where people were sitting.
The Boeing 737 Maxs are the most commonly used aircraft for commercial flights in the world – with more than 1,160 in active use.
Back in 2019, the crisis-hit jets sparked safety fears after two fatal air crashes and were eventually grounded across EU airspace.
And Friday’s incident happened after pilots reported pressurisation warning lights on three earlier flights of the same model – one in December and two in January.
Boeing President and CEO David Calhoun is holding a meeting at the company’s 737 Max factory in Washington on Tuesday “focused on safety”.
“It is critical for us to work transparently with our customers and regulators to understand and address the causes of the event and to ensure they don’t happen again,” Calhoun said in an email.
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