The American aircraft manufacturer is not yet out of the crisis triggered by the incident with an Alaska Airlines plane. The US Civil Aviation Administration announced on Friday that it would wait to review data collected on the planes.
There is no end to the crisis in sight for Boeing. The U.S. Civil Aviation Regulatory Authority (FAA) announced Friday that all 737 MAX 9 planes must remain grounded until their manufacturer, Boeing, provides further data on how a door on an Alaska Airlines plane jammed in flight. “For the safety of American travelers, the FAA is grounding the Boeing 737-9 MAX until comprehensive inspections and maintenance are completed and collected data is reviewed,” the FAA said in a news release.
On January 5, a door dislodged from the cabin of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight that was scheduled to connect Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California. However, the incident caused only a few minor injuries and the aircraft escaped safely landing at his original airport. The FAA has opened a safety investigation into the incident, the first major aviation safety issue on a Boeing plane since the deadly 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that led to the plane's extended grounding.
“We are working to ensure this never happens again,” said FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker. Our only concern is the safety of American travelers and the Boeing 737-9 MAX will not be back in the air until we are fully satisfied that it is safe.” However, the regulator said it would “start the inspection and maintenance process first “will approve it once it has reviewed data from the first round of 40 inspections,” but added that it was considering “promoting the comprehensive” aspect of Boeing's inspection and maintenance instructions.
Hundreds of flights canceled
Earlier Friday, the FAA said it plans to increase its oversight of Boeing's production and manufacturing, including scrutiny of the 737 MAX production line and suppliers. The regulator said it is also looking into using an independent third party to oversee Boeing inspections. “It is time to rethink the delegation of authority and assess the security risks associated with it,” Whitaker said. “The grounding of the 737-9 and numerous production-related issues identified in recent years require that we explore all risk mitigation options,” he said.
Airlines including United Airlines, the largest Max 9 operator in the United States, canceled hundreds of flights this week because those planes were unavailable. Alaska Airlines announced Friday that it would remove all passengers scheduled to board the plane by Sunday, and United announced Friday evening that it would extend the cancellation of Max 9 flights through Tuesday, while also rescheduling some flights to be deleted in the next few days.