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- "SNL" aired a parody ad for Alaska Airlines in its first show of the year, hosted by Jacob Elordi.
- It featured gags like hiring Captain Sully to improve safety and spontaneous emergency exits.
- Although the FAA has been more critical of Boeing's role in the blowout than Alaska Airlines.
"Saturday Night Live" aired a sketch this past weekend that parodied Alaska Airlines following the Flight 1282 incident where a Boeing 737 Max 9 lost its door plug in midair.
Nobody was killed in the incident that took place on January 5, as the plane returned to Portland International Airport 20 minutes after takeoff.
Two weeks later, the frightening incident prompted "SNL" to poke fun at the airline in its first show this year.
Jacob Elordi, of "Saltburn" and "Euphoria" fame, hosted the episode and played an airline employee in the satirical commercial.
"On other airlines, you can watch movies, but on Alaska, you're in the movie," he said.
The sketch also featured gags like a safety card replaced by a thick book, a rollercoaster-esque souvenir photo, and hiring Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger of the "Miracle on the Hudson."
SNL's sketch also mocked another recent incident on an Alaska Airlines flight, in which an off-duty pilot attempted to turn off the plane's engines while believed to have ingested "magic" mushrooms.
The joke ad ended with a tagline poking fun at ultra-low-cost airlines: "Still better than Spirit."
Some of the jokes directly addressed the Flight 1282 blowout, like Kenan Thompson pointing out the emergency exits: "There, there, and in 10 minutes, probably there."
The door plug that came off the 737 Max 9 on January 5 covered a deactivated emergency exit which is only operational in configurations with more passengers.
When the National Transportation Safety Board recovered the door plug in Oregon, they learned four bolts attaching it to the jet were missing. Investigators are analyzing the door to determine if the bolts were ever installed.
"You know those bolts that like, hold the plane together? We're gonna go ahead and tighten some of those," Elordi quipped.
However, regulators have so far pointed to Boeing and its supplier Spirit AeroSystems as responsible for the loose bolts, given that they were also found on United Airlines' 737 Max 9 jets.
Plus Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun told CNBC that the blowout was caused by a "quality escape" and told employees it was "our mistake."