Boeing announces additional quality inspections for 737 MAX planes
Al Jazeera
The additional inspections come after the US Federal Aviation Administration said the 737 MAX should remain grounded.
Boeing has said it will add further quality inspections for the 737 MAX planes after a mid-air blowout of a cabin panel in an Alaska Airlines MAX 9 earlier this month, the head of its commercial planes division said.
In a letter to the global planemaker’s employees on Monday, Stan Deal, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said the company will also deploy a team to supplier Spirit AeroSystems – which makes and installs the plug door involved in the incident – to check and approve Spirit’s work on the plugs before fuselages are sent to Boeing’s production facilities in Washington state in the US.
Boeing’s quality inspections announcement comes after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday that all 737 MAX 9 planes should remain grounded until Boeing provides further data following the near-catastrophic Alaska Airlines incident.
“For the safety of American travellers the FAA will keep the Boeing 737-9 MAX grounded until extensive inspection and maintenance is conducted and data from inspections is reviewed,” the FAA said in a statement.
Only after 40 planes are inspected will the agency review the results and determine whether safety is adequate to allow the MAX 9s to resume flying, the FAA said.
