Another Boeing jet faces scrutiny after the US aviation watchdog issued a safety alert and advised airlines to check that door plugs are secure.
Boeing was already working to reassure carriers, regulators and passengers after a cabin panel blew off a brand-new 737 Max 9 jet during an Alaska Airlines flight earlier this month. Some 171 Max 9 jets have since been grounded.
Now the Federal Aviation Administration has drawn another jet into focus: the 737-900ER. Late on Sunday, the agency recommended airlines “visually inspect mid-exit door plugs” on the jet.
While the 900ER is not part of Boeing’s newer Max fleet, it has an identical mid-exit door plug design. Some operators had “noted findings with bolts” during additional checks on the 900ER, the FAA said, providing no further detail.
“We fully support the FAA and our customers in this action,” a Boeing spokesperson said. Shares in the company slipped in New York on Monday.
The cabin panel blowout on 5 January has raised fresh questions for Boeing about its safety procedures and supply chain. The incident, shortly after the Alaska flight had taken off from Portland, Oregon, forced an emergency landing. No serious injuries were reported. A chunk of the fuselage was recovered from an Oregon teacher’s backyard.
Alaska and United Airlines, the only two US carriers that use the Max 9, later found loose parts on multiple grounded aircraft during preliminary checks. Dozens of Max 9 jets remain grounded, prompting airlines to cancel thousands of flights, while regulators investigate what caused the panel to blow off. The FAA has said the Max 9 planes will only return to service when it is satisfied they are safe.
Unlike the Max 9, which is a relatively new plane, the 900ER is well established. Boeing delivered the first one in 2007, and the last in 2019. There are some 490 in service, according to Cirium data.
But the 900ER, like the Max 9, has an optional door plug design which allows carriers to add an extra emergency exit door, if they install more seats. At least 79 900ER jets are estimated to be configured in this format, with a door rather than a plug.
According to the FAA, 900ER aircraft have logged over 11m hours of operation and 3.9m flight cycles.
In an alert for operators on Sunday, the FAA recommended “as an added layer of safety” that airlines check the four locations where the door is secured to the airframe of the 900ER “as soon as possible”.
Alaska, United and Delta Air Lines operate the majority of the 737-900ERs with door plugs. Each carrier said in a statement they had been inspecting their respective fleet, and did not anticipate disruption to passengers.
On Wednesday, the FAA said inspections of an initial group of 40 Boeing 737 Max 9 jets had been completed, a key hurdle to eventually ungrounding the model. The FAA is continuing to review data from those inspections before deciding when the planes can resume flights.
The FAA administrator, Mike Whitaker, told Reuters this month the FAA is “going through a process to work out how to restore confidence in the integrity of these plug doors”.
The National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy said last week the investigative agency would be looking at numerous records related to the door plug. She said it is unclear if the bolts on the Alaska Airlines jet were properly secured or if they were actually installed at all.
For Boeing, this amounts to the biggest safety crisis since the crashes of two of its Max 8 jets, in 2018 and 2019, in which 346 people were killed. The 737 Max was subsequently grounded across the world for almost two years.
Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s chief executive, stressed following the Alaska incident earlier this month that Boeing must acknowledge “our mistake” while regulators examine the grounded planes.
Analysts have called into question whether executives at the company will have to resign. “We believe the Max-9 issue will only put further pressure on Boeing management, as these incidents reflect less than expected progress on improving execution in the wake of the initial Max grounding and Covid slowdown,” Ronald Epstein of Bank of America wrote last week. “Aside from results of the NTSB and FAA investigations, regulators will likely look for more change from within Boeing.
“We would not be surprised to see regulators, investors and customers push for a turnover in the ranks of senior management and the Board of Directors.”
Reuters contributed reporting
