Federal air safety regulators granted approval on Wednesday for an inspection process that would allow the return to service of grounded Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft after a serious incident on an Alaska Airlines flight.
Mike Whitaker, head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), expressed confidence in the agency’s review of a mid-air door plug blowout incident on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 MAX.
The FAA has now greenlit a comprehensive inspection and maintenance process for the aircraft’s return to flight for all 171 grounded Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft.
However, the FAA clarified that production expansion for the troubled 737 MAX series would not be permitted. The agency communicated this decision to Boeing on Wednesday.
This comes after an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX-9 aircraft made an emergency landing on Jan. 5 due to a blown-out door plug at 16,000 feet altitude. Following this incident, the FAA grounded 171 planes as a safety measure.
The incident led to thousands of flight cancellations by U.S. carriers Alaska Airlines and United Airlines.
“We grounded the Boeing 737-9 MAX within hours of the incident over Portland and made clear this aircraft would not go back into service until it was safe,” Mr. Whitaker said in a statement. “The exhaustive, enhanced review our team completed after several weeks of information gathering gives me and the FAA confidence to proceed to the inspection and maintenance phase.”
The FAA justified the halt in expanding production of Boeing’s 737 MAX narrowbody family, citing the need to “ensure accountability and full compliance with required quality control procedures” by the aircraft manufacturer.
“We will not agree to any request from Boeing for an expansion in production or approve additional production lines for the 737 MAX until we are satisfied that the quality control issues uncovered during this process are resolved,” Mr. Whitaker said.
Boeing’s stock experienced a roughly 4 percent decline in after-hours trade following the announcement.
On Wednesday, the FAA also laid out an inspection and maintenance process so the grounded MAX-9 planes could return to service.
“The exhaustive, enhanced review our team completed after several weeks of information gathering gives me and the FAA confidence to proceed to the inspection and maintenance phase,” Whitaker said.
The FAA disclosed the inspection and maintenance process for the grounded MAX 9 planes on Wednesday, indicating a pathway for their eventual return to service.
Alaska Airlines confirmed receipt of the inspection regime and announced plans to commence returning planes to service on Friday.
The move comes on the same day that Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, met with Boeing CEO David Calhoun.
Ms. Cantwell, who represents the state where Boeing makes its aircraft, said she conveyed the importance of prioritizing quality engineering and safety at the meeting.
“The American flying public and Boeing line workers deserve a culture of leadership at Boeing that puts safety ahead of profits,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“I will be holding hearings to investigate the root causes of these safety lapses,” she added.
The senator previously wrote to the FAA, following the Alaska Airlines incident, demanding answers about the quality control audits that Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems conducted over the last two years. She also wanted to know more about the FAA’s oversight of each manufacturer.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the possibility of missing bolts securing a door plug before the Alaska Airlines plane took off from Portland on Jan. 5.
NTSB investigators will return to Boeing’s 737 assembly factory in Renton, Washington, as part of the ongoing probe into the timeline of the failed door plug.
The FAA is scrutinizing whether Boeing and its suppliers adhered to proper safety procedures during the manufacturing process.
From The Epoch Times
