Boeing has asked the Federal Aviation Administration to exempt the latest variant of its killer 737 Max plane from safety inspections despite the risk of engine failure.
FAA officials said Boeing is working to address the hazard, which could cause the engine casing to overheat and break off during flight, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, federal officials asked pilots of the 737 Max 7, which is not yet used by airlines, to limit the use of an anti-icing system under certain conditions to avoid damage that “results in loss of control of the aircraft could”. The 737 Max 7 is the smallest jet in the Max family and offers space for up to 138 people.
Boeing requested an exemption from safety standards inspections, which check engine inlets and the anti-ice system, until March 2026 so that the model can be introduced for commercial use by airlines.
Boeing's request came just weeks before one of its larger 737 Max 9 jets was forced to make an emergency landing after suffering dramatic mid-air fuselage damage.
Boeing has asked the FAA to exempt its new 737 Max 7 jet model (pictured) from safety inspections
Alaska Flight 1282, a Boeing 737-9 MAX, was carrying 171 passengers and six crew members
Alaska Flight 1282, a Boeing 737-9 MAX bound for Ontario, California, was departing Portland just after 5 p.m. local time on Friday when a deactivated emergency door serving as a normal cabin window exploded at 16,000 feet. The controversial jet was carrying 171 passengers and six crew members.
Its catastrophic failure caused the cabin to depressurize, and the force of the incoming air ripped the shirt off a small boy whose mother was holding him. Passengers also watched as their phones were sucked into the night sky.
Miraculously, no injuries were reported on the aircraft, which only entered service in November 2023.
The FAA has now grounded at least 170 Boeing 737 Max 9 jets to conduct immediate safety inspections.
As The New York Times reported, the FAA will inspect the plane's “center cabin door plug.”
This plug has been incorporated into the design of some aircraft, which do not need to use all emergency modes due to the smaller number of seats than the original design.
Alaska Airlines also pulled the planes from the skies as CEO Ben Minicucci announced that the planes would not be returned to the fleet until preventative maintenance procedures were completed, which he expected to happen “in the next few days.”
The airline confirmed in a statement on Saturday afternoon that it had begun inspecting door plugs and had already cleared 18 of its 65 Max 9s for return to service.
Federal officials asked pilots of the 737 Max 7, which is not yet used by airlines, to limit the use of an anti-icing system under certain conditions. The Boeing 737 9, 8 and 7 aircraft are pictured in this image shared by the airline
Miraculously, no injuries were reported on the aircraft, which only entered service in November 2023
A photo shows the blown window. It is offered as a door on the plane. Alaska decided against this option, even though the frame of the future door was completely torn out by the hull damage
Boeing introduced its 737 Max 9 in 2015 and has become one of the most widely used aircraft in the world since receiving certification from the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in 2017.
But the company's reputation has been deeply tarnished and it has plunged Boeing into the biggest crisis in the history of the Chicago-headquartered company.
A year after it was put into service, the machine's first crash occurred: In October 2018, a 737 Max from the Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 189 passengers.
Five months later, in March 2019, a second 737 Max – this one operated by Ethiopian Airlines – crashed again shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 on board.
Three days later, the FAA grounded the planes.
It later emerged that Boeing employees blithely criticized FAA regulations in internal communications and criticized the Max's design — particularly a computer system that was blamed for both fatal crashes.
One said the plane was “designed by clowns who are in turn supervised by monkeys.”
The 737's design dates back to the 1960s and Boeing was criticized for putting large engines on an old airframe rather than using a “clean sheet design.”
Errors were discovered in the aircraft's MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System): in both the Lion Air and Ethiopian Air crashes, it was discovered that the MCAS had incorrectly pointed the nose down toward the ground and the pilots failed to override it could.
On March 11, 2019, the wreckage of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is spotted
A Lion Air Boeing 737-MAX crashed in Badung Bali in 2013 after overshooting the runway at Bali Ngurah Rai Airport
The FAA has been heavily criticized for giving Boeing too much leeway to conduct its own safety reviews rather than undergo more rigorous outside inspections.
In 2021, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion in fines as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve allegations that the company concealed key information about the Max from regulators and the public .
Boeing spent billions overhauling the systems and the planes returned to global skies in fall 2020 after being grounded for 20 months – the longest such operation in aviation history.