Groundings for inspection of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 multiplied across the world on Sunday, causing dozens of flight cancellations, after an accident on an American Alaska Airlines plane which lost a door after take-off.
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As American companies such as United Airlines, one of the first in the world, Turkish Airlines, Aeromexico and the Panamanian company Copa Airlines have grounded their planes of this type for inspection, following a directive from the American federal agency of civil aviation (Federal Aviation Administration, FAAA).
According to data communicated by Boeing to AFP, around 218 examples of the 737 MAX 9 have been delivered so far.
The FAA on Saturday ordered “the immediate inspection of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft” before a new flight, specifying that approximately 171 planes had been affected worldwide. The duration of the operation is estimated to be between four and eight hours per aircraft.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has indicated for its part that it will follow the American recommendations, adding that this should not have any impact, since no operator in Europe will use the 737 MAX 9 with the technical options in question.
These devices “can continue to function normally”, indicates in a press release the European agency, whose headquarters are in Cologne (Germany).
Singapore Airlines (SIA) specified that it had not used a device of the type to be checked and was therefore “not affected” by the provision.
The accident occurred on Friday, around 6:30 pm (9:30 pm eastern time), shortly after an Alaska Airlines flight took off from Portland International Airport (northwestern Oregon).
According to the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), a door opened and detached from the cabin during the flight. The plane, which was carrying 171 passengers and 6 crew members, was then at an altitude of almost 5,000 m.
Light injuries
It is a door blocked and hidden by a partition that reveals only a porthole, according to the NTSB, a configuration offered by Boeing to customers who request it.
The FAA directive also covers models “with the central door blocked,” according to the document published on its website.
After turning around, the plane returned to land in Portland, causing only a few minor injuries.
The NTSB announced that it had sent a team to Portland to investigate the reasons for this malfunction.
United, which has the world’s largest fleet of 737-9s, told AFP it would ground 46 planes, 33 of which had already been examined.
Alaska, which had neutralized all of its 65 planes of this model even before the FAA’s announcement, clarified on Saturday and said it had not seen “any items of concern” at this stage.
Copa Airlines has suspended the operation of its 21 planes of this model for verification and Turkish Airlines that of the five it owns.
“It was really brutal. As soon as we were at altitude, the front part of the window came off,” a passenger on the plane, Kyle Rinker, testified to the American channel CNN.
According to the NTSB, there was no one in the two seats next to the blown-away partition.
But according to passengers quoted by Portland newspaper The Oregonian, a teenager sitting in this row ripped his shirt due to decompression, causing minor injuries.
“Terrifying accident”
“A terrifying accident,” said US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, on X.
“We are very, very fortunate that this didn’t end more tragically,” NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy told reporters.
The official revealed that, according to initial analysis, the door had fallen above Cedar Hills in Portland’s inner suburbs and urged residents in the area to come forward if they found it.
The offending device was certified in November, according to the FAA registry available online.
“We support its (the FAA’s) decision to request an immediate inspection of 737-9s of the same configuration as the offending aircraft,” Boeing reacted in a statement sent to AFP.
The crash comes after a series of technical problems and two crashes in recent years for the 737 MAX.
The two crashes, which killed 346 people in October 2018 and March 2019, resulted in the 737 MAX being grounded for 20 months and requiring changes to the onboard control system.
More recently, Boeing had to slow deliveries due to problems with the fuselage, particularly the rear bulkhead of the plane.
By the end of December, Boeing had delivered a total of more than 1,370 examples of the 737 MAX and its order backlog had reached more than 4,000 units.
2024-01-08 02:44:26
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