The emergency landing of a Boeing 737 Max jetliner with a gaping hole in its side is renewing safety concerns about the planes and creating new headaches for Boeing
Boeing faces new scrutiny about the safety of its best-selling plane after federal officials announced the temporary grounding of some Boeing 737 Max planes on Saturday, following a harrowing flight in which an Alaska Airlines jetliner was left with a gaping hole in its side.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it was requiring immediate inspections of some Max 9 planes operated by U.S. airlines or flown in the United States by foreign carriers.
The FAA’s emergency order, which it said will affect about 171 planes worldwide, is the latest blow to Boeing over the Max lineup of jets, which were involved in two deadly crashes shortly after their debut.
On Friday, a fuselage panel blew out on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 seven minutes after takeoff from Portland, Oregon. The rapid loss of cabin pressure pulled the clothes off a child and caused oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling, but miraculously none of the 171 passengers and six members were injured. Pilots made a safe emergency landing.
Hours after the terrifying incident, Alaska Airlines announced that it would ground its entire fleet of 65 Max 9s for inspections and maintenance. CEO Ben Minicucci said Alaska expects the inspections to be completed “in the next few days.”
Alaska said on Saturday that the affected areas on 18 of its Max 9s were inspected during recent, intense maintenance work and were cleared to return to carrying passengers.
Even the short grounding disrupted the airline — the Max 9 accounts for more than one-fourth of Alaska’s fleet — and its passengers. On Saturday, Alaska canceled more than 100 flights, or 15% of its schedule, by late morning on the West Coast, according to FlightAware.
United Airlines said it had inspected 33 of its 79 Max 9s, and pulling the planes from service had caused about 60 canceled flights.
Photos showed a hole in the Alaska jet where an emergency exit is installed when planes are configured to carry a maximum number of passengers.
