The Boeing 737 MAX-9 inspection movement spread around the world on Sunday January 7, two days after a terrifying incident that occurred on a plane of the American company Alaska Airlines which lost one of its doors in midair. flight.
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Like American companies like United Airlines, one of the world’s first, Turkish Airlines, Aeromexico and the Panamanian company Copa Airlines have now grounded their Boeing 737 MAX-9 aircraft to inspect them, following a directive from the American federal civil aviation agency (FAA). She ordered “ immediate inspection of certain Boeing 737 MAX-9 aircraft » before a new theft, specifying that around 171 devices of the type in question were affected worldwide. The duration of the operation is estimated between 4 and 8 hours per plane. According to data communicated by Boeing to AFP, some 218 copies of the 737 MAX-9 have been delivered to date.
The FAA directive concerns models “ with the middle door blocked », According to the document published on its site. It is a door blocked and hidden by a partition which only reveals a porthole, according to the American transport safety agency (NTSB), a configuration offered by Boeing to customers who request it. Indeed, according to this organization, it was a door that opened and detached from the cabin of an Alaska Airlines 737 from Portland International Airport. The aircraft, which was carrying 171 passengers and 6 crew members, was then at an altitude of almost 5,000 m. After turning around, the plane quickly returned to land in Portland, the incident causing only a few minor injuries. One incident however terrifying », Judged on X (ex-Twitter) the American Secretary of Transport, Pete Buttigieg.
Series of technical problems
The NTSB announced that it had sent a team to Portland to investigate the reasons for this malfunction. Alaska, which had neutralized all of its 65 MAX-9 model planes even before the FAA’s announcement, clarified on Saturday on more than a quarter » of its fleet of 737 MAX-9s had been inspected and said not to have found at this stage “ element of concern “. For its part, United Airlines, which has the largest fleet of 737 MAX-9s in the world, announced to AFP that it was leaving 46 aircraft on the ground, 33 having already been examined. Copa Airlines has suspended the operation of its 21 aircraft of this model for verification and Turkish Airlines that of the five it owns.
The incident comes after a series of technical problems and two crashes in recent years for the 737 MAX, all versions combined. The two accidents, which left 346 dead in October 2018 and March 2019, resulted in the 737 MAX being kept on the ground for twenty months and the imposition of changes in the in-flight control system. More recently, Boeing had to slow down deliveries due to problems with the fuselage, particularly with the aircraft’s rear bulkhead.
By the end of December 2023, Boeing had delivered a total of more than 1,370 copies of the 737 MAX and its order book reached more than 4,000 units. Suspended by China since the crashes, deliveries of 737 MAX to Chinese companies have still not resumed.
(With AFP)
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