United Airlines and Alaska Airlines on Monday both reported that loose hardware had been discovered on some of their Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes during preliminary inspections after a dramatic mid-flight incident last week.
The disclosures come as US federal transportation inspectors probe what caused a so-called door plug component to blow out on Friday last week on an Alaska Airlines passenger plane, forcing it to make an emergency landing.
United on Monday said it had “found instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug — for example, bolts that needed additional tightening.”
Photo: AFP
Hours later, Alaska Airlines said its staff had found that “loose hardware was visible on some aircraft.”
Boeing shares tumbled on Monday as investors began to assess the financial implications of the incident, while US aviation authorities provided airlines with protocols to check planes with similar configurations to the 737 MAX 9 aircraft involved in Friday’s incident.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) inspectors late on Monday said that they did not find bolts for the component that came off the Alaska Airlines flight, but had not determined whether they existed or had flown off with the panel.
Through further equipment testing, “we will be able to determine whether the bolts were there,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters.
Homendy did not comment directly on the latest disclosures from United and Alaska about loose components, saying the probe was focused on Friday last week’s incident, but the board could issue an urgent safety recommendation if need be.
Hundreds of flights have been canceled due to the grounding of a fraction of the MAX fleet.
“As operators conduct the required inspections, we are staying in close contact with them and will help address any and all findings,” Boeing said late on Monday. “We are committed to ensuring every Boeing airplane meets design specifications and the highest safety and quality standards.”
Aviation analysts said the issue appeared to be a quality control defect rather than a design issue akin to the problem with a flawed flight handling system involved in two fatal MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, but Boeing has struggled with supply chain and quality control problems since the MAX returned to service, limiting its output and hitting its bottom line.
Boeing last month urged airlines to undertake additional inspections to check for loose hardware on plane rudder control systems after an international operator discovered a bolt with a missing nut while performing routine maintenance.
United has 79 MAX 9 planes, more than any other carrier.
The US airline said it has canceled 200 MAX 9 flights since the incident and expected “significant cancelations” yesterday.
Following the Alaska Airlines incident, the US Federal Aviation Administration ordered operators to ground 171 jets with the same door plug configuration.
A door plug is a cover panel used to fill an unneeded emergency exit in planes with smaller seat configurations.
The incident is the latest setback for Boeing, particularly over the 737 MAX.
The worst were two crashes — a Lion Air flight in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March 2019 — that caused the deaths of 346 people and triggered the grounding of all 737 MAX planes for nearly two years.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
RSS