U.S. temporarily grounds Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes for safety checks
U.S. regulators have ordered 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft temporarily grounded for safety checks after an emergency door on the left side of an Alaska Airlines plane detached while climbing from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, forcing pilots to turn around and land safely with 171 passengers and six crew on board. The aircraft had been in service for only eight weeks.
“The FAA is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said on Saturday. “Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSB’s investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.”
The Federal Aviation Administration’s decision falls well short of a full indefinite safety ban comparable to the grounding of all MAX-family jets almost five years ago, but deals a new blow to Boeing as it tries to recover from back-to-back crises over safety and the pandemic.
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There were no immediate indications of the cause of the apparent structural failure, nor any reports of injuries.
Alaska Airlines had already started grounding dozens of the Boeing jets for safety checks.
As of Saturday morning, Alaska said in a statement that it had completed more than a quarter of the inspections and found no issues
India orders inspection of 737 MAX
India’s aviation regulator on Saturday ordered an inspection of all Boeing 737-8 aircraft owned by domestic operators following an incident involving an Alaska Airlines jet, ANI news agency reported.
While none of India’s air operators have the Boeing 737-9 Max model in their fleets, the country’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed a “one-time inspection of the emergency exits immediately on all Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft currently operating as part of their fleet,” ANI said in a post on social media platform X.
With information from Reuters
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