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THE US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Saturday (01/06), 2024 ordered the temporary suspension of operations of a number of Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft operated by US airlines or in US territory.
The order was issued following a serious incident mid-flight on Friday (01/05) when a part of the fuselage of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 came loose on an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon State, USA. The plane has only been operational for eight weeks.
“The FAA is requesting that inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft be conducted immediately before the aircraft can return to the air,” said FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker.
“Safety will continue to be the driver of our decision-making as we assist with the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into Alaska Airlines flight 1282,” he said.
The FAA said the Emergency Airworthiness Order it issued would impact about 171 aircraft. Boeing has delivered a total of 218 MAX 9 models worldwide. The impact resulting from the accident was so powerful that most of the plane was destroyed, so the investigation team had to explore the area around the crater formed by the accident to look for clues, evidence and victims’ bodies.
Turkish Airlines also grounded five of its Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes to carry out inspections, company spokesman Yahya Ustun said on social media platform X.
According to local reports, Copa Airlines and Aeromexico, the national airlines of Panama and Mexico, together grounded around 40 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft following a depressurization incident on an Alaska Airlines plane.
Copa Airlines, which temporarily suspended operations of 21 737 MAX 9 aircraft, expressed confidence in reintroducing the planes to its flight schedule safely and reliably within the next 24 hours. The airline also acknowledged the potential for delays and cancellations during this period.
The European Union (EU) Aviation Safety Agency has followed the FAA’s lead regarding the MAX 9, although the agency stressed that no airlines from EU member states currently use aircraft with that configuration.
Britain’s air safety regulator stated that every 737 MAX 9 operator must comply with FAA directives to gain access to its airspace.
The history of Boeing aircraft has been marred by a series of incidents
On October 29, 2018, a new Boeing plane with 189 passengers on board took off from Jakarta for Pangkalpinang, Bangka Belitung Islands, on a one-hour flight.
Twelve minutes after takeoff, the plane operated by Lion Air crashed in Karawang waters in an almost vertical position, at a speed of around 800 km per hour. There were no survivors in the accident.
Five months later, a terrible coincidence occurred. A Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, similar to the aircraft involved in the Lion Air tragedy, departed from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on a flight to Kenya. Just six minutes after takeoff, the plane crashed to the ground, killing all 157 people on board.
On January 9 2021, a Boeing 737-500 aircraft experienced a tragic accident and fell into the Java Sea shortly after departing from Jakarta. The unfortunate flight, which was operated by Sriwijaya Air airline on a flight from Jakarta to Pontianak, West Kalimantan, carried 62 people consisting of six crew members and 56 passengers. This tragic incident killed everyone on board the plane, all of whom were reportedly Indonesian citizens.
In October of that year, former Boeing test pilot Mark Forkner was indicted by a federal grand jury. He is accused of misleading the FAA and engaging in a scheme to defraud airlines during the development of the 737 Max, which was involved in two fatal crashes in a span of five months and resulted in the deaths of 346 people.
Alaska Airlines announced late Friday that it was temporarily suspending operations of all 65 of its Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft to conduct inspections.
According to multiple reports, part of the fuselage of Alaska Airlines’ Boeing 737 Max 9 broke free on Friday, leaving a large hole and causing a drop in pressure in the passenger cabin.
“The Ontario, California-bound plane returned to Portland and made an emergency landing 20 minutes after takeoff. All 171 passengers and six crew members survived, with only a few minor injuries,” Alaska Airlines said. [antaranews]
