The Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, which made an emergency landing at Portland Airport on January 5, is parked on the Portland tarmac, January 23, 2024 in Oregon (AFP/Patrick T. Fallon)
The boss of Boeing recognized on Wednesday the “seriousness” of the incident that occurred in early January on a 737 MAX 9 plane from Alaska Airlines, in which an obstructed door came loose in flight, which resulted in the plane being kept on the ground. all devices of this model.
“We don’t send planes into the air that we don’t have 100 percent confidence in,” Dave Calhoun told reporters before a meeting with senators in Washington.
“I am here today in a spirit of transparency to, first of all, recognize the seriousness” of what happened, he continued, and also, “to share everything I can ” with parliamentarians and to “answer all their questions, because they have many”.
On January 5, a cabin door of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 flying from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California came loose in flight.
Airlines have the possibility of blocking a door when the number of existing emergency exits is sufficient in relation to the number of seats on the aircraft.
Photo provided by the NTSB on January 8, 2024 showing the location of a door that came loose on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 in Portland (NTSB/AFP/Handout)
This modification has been made on 171 of the 218 Boeing 737 MAX 9s delivered to date.
The American Civil Aviation Regulatory Agency (FAA) has suspended aircraft configured in this way from flight until further notice.
It also recommended this week that operators of Boeing 737-900ERs, an older model, check the cap holder attachments present on 380 of the 539 units delivered.
– Quality control –
The regulator has opened an investigation into quality control within Boeing, which has reported in recent months several production problems in the 737 family, its flagship model: connections on the fuselage, problem on the rear bulkhead, risk of “loose bolt” on rudder control system.
Photo released by the NTSB on January 8, 2024, shows agents inspecting a fallen door from an Alaska Airlines plane in Portland, Oregon (National Transportation Safety Board/AFP/-)
The group last week appointed an independent advisor, reporting to Dave Calhoun, to review its quality control process.
And it is due to hold the first in a series of training days at its Renton (Washington State, West) factory on Thursday, with workshops focused on quality for staff at its production sites.
According to the regional daily The Seattle Times, referring Wednesday to an unidentified source, the incriminated cork holder had been removed in Renton for repairs and had been incorrectly reinstalled.
Furthermore, this intervention was not properly recorded in Boeing’s systems and, as a result, the device was not formally verified before delivery of the aircraft to Alaska Airlines.
Ben Minicucci, boss of Alaska Airlines, told NBC News on Tuesday that he had discovered “numerous” loose bolts on the cap doors of his 737 MAX 9s. United Airlines reported the same thing on January 8.
Latest incident reported by the FAA concerning a Boeing: a front axle tire of a 757 from the American company Delta came off on Saturday morning while it was preparing to take off from Atlanta (Georgia) to Bogota in Colombia .
A Boeing spokeswoman noted that the 757 has not been produced since 2004, and referred Delta for further details.
Asked by AFP, the company did not react immediately.
According to the site airfleets.net, the plane concerned has been in service for 32 years.
© 2024 AFP
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