United States: Experts in the industry are now concerned about the manufacturing process of passenger planes after United Airlines and Alaska Airlines reported finding loose parts on several grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which oversees the sector in the US, grounded 171 Max 9 aircraft globally on Friday after a cabin panel on an aircraft operated by Alaska blew off in midair, requiring the pilots to perform an emergency landing.
In its initial inspections, United said that it “found bolts that needed additional tightening.” When Alaska conducted fleet inspections, early reports from its technicians revealed that some “loose hardware” was visible on some aircraft.
The carriers are concentrating on an area called the door plug, a cover panel that is used in aircraft that have been configured with fewer seats to fill an unnecessary emergency exit.
As a result of the door plug panel blowing out on Friday’s Alaskan flight, the FAA instructed operators to ground all aircraft equipped with that particular configuration.
According to the statement, United has the largest fleet of the concerned aircraft, with 79 Max 9 planes. 65 of the aircraft are owned by Alaska, with the remaining aircraft being flown by Turkish Airlines, Copa Airlines of Panama, and Aeromexico.
Concerns regarding the Max 9’s production process and quality control have been brought up by the midair incident. Although only a small number of airlines operate the model, the 737 Max family of aircraft has been the subject of controversy since the entire fleet was grounded in March 2019 following two crashes that claimed 346 lives in the span of six months.
Boeing stated that it was keeping in close communication with the operators of the Max 9 and would assist customers in addressing any issues that arose from the most recent inspections.
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