The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Saturday ordered the immediate inspection of 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft suspended from flight until then, after an incident that occurred Friday during a flight near Portland, Oregon.
The FAA directive “requires operators (airlines) to inspect the aircraft before a new flight,” the agency said in a press release, estimating that this operation required between 4 and 8 hours per aircraft. According to data communicated by Boeing to AFP, some 218 copies of the 737 MAX 9 have been delivered to date. Before the FAA’s announcement, the American airline Alaska had already neutralized all of its 65 planes of this model.
A Boeing model has already experienced a series of technical problems
The decision followed an incident that occurred Friday shortly after an Alaska Airlines flight took off from Portland International Airport (Northwest Oregon) around 5 p.m. local time to Ontario, California, in the greater suburbs of Los Angeles. According to images posted on social networks, a door opened and detached from the cabin in mid-flight. The aircraft, which was carrying 171 passengers and 6 crew members, was then at an altitude of nearly 5,000 m, according to flight data from the FlightAware website.
According to several specialists, notably the manager of the specialized site The Air Current, Jon Ostrower, it seems that it is a door that is blocked and hidden by a partition which only reveals a porthole. After turning around, the plane returned to land at its original airport, the incident causing only a few minor injuries. The 737 Max is a nightmare for Boeing: the Max 8 had already been grounded for almost two years, after two accidents which caused hundreds of deaths. The aircraft manufacturer had to pay $20 billion in compensation and fines, not to mention tens of other billions lost due to order cancellations.
The 737 is Boeing’s best-selling plane, but airlines could lose confidence with incidents piling up. A few weeks ago, inspections had already been ordered, again on the 737 Max, due to a risk linked to poorly suited bolts in the rudder.