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Boeing announced safety concerns for its best-selling plane after federal authorities announced Saturday the temporary grounding of some Boeing 737 Max planes following a disastrous flight in which an Alaska Airlines jetliner left a gaping hole in the side. Their sexuality faces new scrutiny.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced that it is requiring immediate inspections of some Max 9 aircraft operated by U.S. airlines or in the U.S. by foreign airlines.
The FAA’s emergency order affects about 171 planes worldwide and is the latest blow to Boeing for its Max series jets, which were involved in two fatal crashes shortly after their debut.
A fuselage panel exploded on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 seven minutes after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, on Friday. As the cabin pressure dropped rapidly, children tore off their clothes and oxygen masks fell from the ceiling, but miraculously none of the 171 passengers and six members of the crew were injured. The pilot made a safe emergency landing.
Hours after the horrific incident, Alaska Airlines announced it was grounding all 65 of its Max 9 planes for inspection and maintenance. CEO Ben Minicucci said Alaska expects testing to be completed “within the next few days.”
Alaska Airlines announced Saturday that the affected areas of 18 Max 9s were inspected during recent intensive maintenance work and cleared to return to carrying passengers.
Even a brief grounding disrupted the airline (Max 9 planes make up more than a quarter of Alaska Airlines’ fleet) and its passengers. On Saturday, Alaska canceled more than 100 flights on the West Coast by early morning, representing 15% of its schedule, according to FlightAware.
United Airlines announced that it had inspected 33 of its 79 Max 9 planes and that approximately 60 flights had been canceled due to the plane’s grounding.
Photos show holes where emergency exits will be installed on the Alaskan jet as the plane is set to carry the maximum number of passengers. Alaska Airlines is plugging those doors because its 737 Max 9 jets don’t have enough seats to require separate emergency exits.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board announced they would investigate Friday’s incident.
Boeing executives declined requests for comment. The Arlington, Virginia-based company issued a statement saying it supports the FAA’s decision to require immediate testing. Boeing said it was providing technical assistance to investigators.
Analysts said the extent of the damage to Boeing’s brand would depend on what investigators determined was the cause of the explosion.
Richard Aboulafia, a longtime aerospace analyst and consultant, said that if the explosions were found to be caused by a manufacturing problem, there would be more pressure on Boeing to change its processes and reduce the cost of new, more profitable planes. He said there is a possibility that deliveries may be delayed.
But Aboulafia said he expected no change in Boeing’s aircraft sales “unless things are worse than expected.” Airlines are sourcing new, more fuel-efficient planes from Boeing and Airbus to meet strong travel demand due to the pandemic.
The plane involved in Friday’s incident is brand new, having started carrying passengers in November, but has only flown 145 flights so far, according to flight tracking service Flightradar24.
The Max — the difference between the Max 8 and Max 9 is primarily size — is the latest version of Boeing’s venerable 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle aircraft frequently used on U.S. domestic flights.
More than a decade ago, Boeing considered designing and building an entirely new airplane to replace the 737. But fearing losing sales to European rival Airbus, which was selling a more fuel-efficient version of the similarly sized A320, Boeing decided to go with the 737. The Max was born in a shorter way: by tweaking the 737.
In 2018, a Max 8 plane operated by Lion Air crashed in Indonesia, and in 2019, a Max 8 plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed. Regulators around the world grounded the plane for nearly two years while Boeing made changes to the automatic flight control system linked to the crash.
Federal prosecutors and Congress have questioned whether Boeing cut corners too quickly in its rush to quickly approve the Max with minimal training required for pilots. In 2021, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion, including a $244 million fine, resolving the criminal investigation. The company accused two relatively low-ranking employees of misleading the Federal Aviation Administration about flaws in its flight control system.
Robert Clifford, a Chicago lawyer representing the families of the passengers killed in the Ethiopian plane crash, said Friday’s accident raised questions about whether regulators were too quick to get the Max plane back flying. Ta. He accused Boeing of prioritizing profits over safety.
“This company has gone from being the best in engineering expertise and precision to being at the bottom of the barrel,” he said.
In its financial report, Boeing estimated losses of more than $20 billion as a result of the two fatal crashes. The company has reached private settlements with most of the families of the passengers killed in the crash.
Airlines have resumed purchasing the Max after a pause after the crash. But the plane is suffering from problems unrelated to Friday’s explosion.
Questions about components from suppliers sometimes delayed delivery times. Last year, the FAA told pilots to limit the use of the Max’s anti-icing system in dry conditions over concerns that the air intakes around the engines could overheat and damage them, causing them to crash into the aircraft. And in December, Boeing told airlines to inspect their planes for possible loose bolts in the rudder control system.
In 2018, a passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight was killed when part of the engine housing blew off and broke the window he was sitting next to. However, the incident involved an earlier model of the Boeing 737, not the Max.
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This article corrects the number of passengers to 171.
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