The United States air safety regulator on Saturday (Jan 6) made an announcement ordering immediate inspections of some Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft a day after one of the airplane’s window panels blew out over the state of Oregon post takeoff.
The Federal Aviation Administration “is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight,” the agency said in a post on X.
The agency estimates that approximately 171 planes would be impacted globally and that each inspection would last four to eight hours respectively.
“Safety will continue to drive our decision-making,” the FAA statement said.
Alaska and United Airlines operate the most MAX 9 aircraft. Boeing has so far delivered around 218 737 MAX 9 planes, the company told news agency AFP.
US-based Alaska Airlines had on Friday (Jan 5) grounded all 65 of its Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft after a flight carrying 177 people was forced to make an emergency landing with passengers reporting that a window panel blew out post takeoff.
“Alaska Airlines flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, experienced an incident this evening soon after departure,” the company said.
On Saturday (Jan 6), the company said it had taken the “precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing Max-9 aircraft”.
Alaska’s Flight 1282 had departed from Portland International Airport on Friday evening. It returned safely around 20 minutes later after cabin crew reported a “pressurization issue,” according to the FAA.
“Following tonight’s event on Flight 1282, we have decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft,” Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement Friday.
“Each aircraft will be returned to service only after completion of full maintenance and safety inspections,” he said.
Investigation underway
The National Transportation Safety Board, FAA and Alaska Airlines released a statement respectively saying that they were probing the rare incident.
“While this type of occurrence is rare,” the airline said in an earlier statement, “our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation.”
Boeing, in a posting on its official X account, stated that it was collecting more information about the incident and that a technical team was available to assist the investigation.
(With inputs from agencies)
