Alaska Airlines flight to Oakland forced to return to Seattle after 'engine issue'

An Alaska Airlines flight headed to Oakland, California, on Sunday was forced to turn around because of an engine issue and head back to to Seattle, Washington.

The plane, a Boeing 737-700, was headed to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport when the crew identified and reported a 'possible engine issue.' 

Despite the apparent problem, Alaska Air flight 1240 touched down safely at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at around 1:30pm that same day, according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration. 

The plane had left Seattle at 12:22pm, KIRO 7 reported, which means it was in the air for roughly an hour before its safe return.

According to Alaska Airlines, the flight's number 1 engine on the left side of the aircraft was shut down.

'Credit to the crew for following standard procedures for this situation and landing safely without incident,' said the airline in a statement. 'We worked to take care of our guests and accommodate their travel to Oakland yesterday afternoon, and we apologize for the inconvenience.' 

The FAA said it will investigate the incident.

This comes months after another Alaska Airlines flight had one of its door plugs blow out mid-flight at a terrifying 16,000 feet in the air. 

This incident, which occurred on January 5, unfolded just minutes after the California-bound plane took off from Oregon.  

Some passengers' had clothes and their phones sucked out, while others were left injured when the gaping hole caused a sudden decompression.

Since it was yet another aircraft manufactured by Boeing, the FAA immediately grounded 171 Boeing 737-9 MAX aircrafts and has been pursuing 'aggressive oversight' of the company.

It's unclear how Sunday's incident will affect this ongoing probe.

Boeing has had a string of setbacks and bad press that has sent its stock plummeting more than 30 percent year to date.

Last month, the company accepted a $243.6 million plea deal that would see the company avoid a criminal trial over two deadly 737 Max crashes, one in October 2018 and the other March 2019. 

That's on top of numerous Boeing commercial planes having terrifying malfunctions midflight, company whistleblowers mysteriously dying and former CEO Dave Calhoun delivering poorly received testimony on Capitol Hill.

Boeing faced yet another blow this Saturday when NASA announced it would be relying on SpaceX to rescue Boeing's Starliner-1 crew Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station.

The astronauts launched into space on June 5 aboard the Boeing Starliner-1, but the spacecraft had serious malfunctions with its thrusters.  

Their mission was supposed to last just eight days, but thanks to the faulty Starliner, Wilmore and Williams will have to wait until February 2025 to come home.

They'll hitch a ride on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

This flight was supposed to be Boeing's last hurdle to overcome before NASA would feel comfortable certifying the Starliner to ferry astronauts to and from the space station on a regular basis.

SpaceX, for instance, has been taking NASA astronauts to the space station since 2020.

It's unclear how NASA will move forward with the certification process of the Starliner.