STEPHEN BRASHEAR/Getty Images via AFP
It is Boeing 737 MAX 9 models like this one that are now grounded for investigations following Friday's incident in the United States.
TRANSPORTATION – The horizon is darkening again for the American aircraft manufacturer. The incident, which occurred on Friday while a 737 MAX 9 was flying near Portland in the US, complicates the return to the top of manufacturer Boeing, which has been crippled by a series of problems with its planes in recent years , in addition to two fatal accidents.
If the part of the fuselage that suddenly detached from this Alaska Airlines plane did not cause any losses, the situation is likely to become critical for Boeing, whose 737-MAX 9 aircraft are now grounded in many countries and are awaiting expert assessments of the problematic model.
Another trouble for Boeing, which was slowly recovering after a long period of instability caused by the numerous technical problems of this aircraft, originally intended to compete with the Airbus A320.
· Line inspections
Since Friday, the American airline Alaska Airlines has ordered the grounding of all 737 MAX 9 models. Since then, the announcements have followed each other and become similar within American and even global aviation. United Airlines, one of the world's leading companies, Turkish Airlines, Aeromexico and the Panamanian company Copa Airlines have decided to ground their aircraft of this type for inspection.
A decision that follows a directive from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Since its launch, Boeing says it has delivered 218 737-MAX 9 aircraft. For example, United Airlines has the world's largest fleet of this Boeing model and the company has withdrawn 46 of its devices from the market, while 33 of them have failed already under investigation since Friday.
The FAA, for its part, reports the number of 171 affected aircraft worldwide. And for each piece of equipment, typical inspections require between four and eight hours of work. A task that could lead to a paralysis of the Boeing fleet, a scenario that the aircraft manufacturer is now well aware of.
· Two consecutive crashes
In recent years, the 737-MAX model no longer smells of holiness. It has to be said that with two fatal accidents that occurred one year and two years after this device was put into use, the conditions are not really ideal.
The first occurred on October 28, 2018, killing 189 people off the coast of Indonesia. This Lion Air aircraft was targeted by investigators at the time because of its design defects and its control system on board. Le Figaro also mentions the “inadequate training of the pilots and the poor performance of the crew” that led to the Boeing crash.
Five months later, a 737-800-MAX, this time owned by Ethiopian Airlines, crashed shortly after takeoff on March 10, 2019, in relatively similar conditions to the Lion Air flight. Once again, a design flaw related to the MCAS software is highlighted. A system that prevents the device from coming loose.
· The fleet was paralyzed for 20 months
After this second accident, Boeing was forced to ground its aircraft while several countries, including the United States, China and India, banned the model from their airspace. A 20 long month period of immobilization during which changes to the flight control system were enforced.
And in the last few months the problems have increased again. Especially at the end of 2023, when Boeing informed airlines with 737 models that they needed to be checked for loose parts in the rudder control system. A few months earlier, Boeing was also forced to cut its deliveries due to problems with the fuselage, particularly the aircraft's rear bulkhead.
The loss of confidence in the 737-MAX could cost Boeing dearly after this new, particularly visually impressive incident. And China, already cooled by the crashes of 2018 and 2019, is unlikely to immediately resume 737-MAX deliveries to Chinese companies.
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