FAA Temporarily Grounds 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 Aircraft for Airworthiness Inspection After Air Alaska Incident

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Affected airliner jet Air Alaska N704AL -- a Boeing 737 Max 9 photographed at Boeing Field, Washington on October 28, 2023 (PHOTO CREDIT: Nick Dean, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license)
Affected airliner jet Air Alaska N704AL — a Boeing 737 Max 9 photographed at Boeing Field, Washington on October 28, 2023 (PHOTO CREDIT: Nick Dean, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

The FAA is ordering the temporary grounding of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft operated by U.S. airlines or in U.S. territory.

A Boeing 737-9 MAX (N704AL) serving as Air Alaska Flight 1282, experienced an uncontrolled rapid decompression Friday, January 5, 2024, when a plug covering an unused emergency exit door blew away from the airframe shortly after departure from Portland International Airport. Air Alaska Flight 1282 was departing for Ontario International Airport while climbing through 16,000 feet. Immediately after the decompression incident, Flight 1282 diverted back to Portland, Oregon.

“The FAA is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight. Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSB’s investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.”

— FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker

The Emergency Airworthiness Directive (EAD) that will be issued shortly will require operators to inspect aircraft before further flight that do not meet the inspection cycles specified in the EAD. The required inspections will take around four to eight hours per aircraft. The EAD will affect approximately 171 airplanes worldwide.

The Boeing 737 MAX 9 (N704AL) with Boeing manufacturer’s serial number 67501 was about two months in service at the time of the incident, with an Airworthiness date of October 25, 2023.. The aircraft was manufactured in 2023, and is owned by Alaska Airlines, Inc, according to the FAA.

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Two major crashes involving Boeing 737 Max aircraft serving Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 killed all passengers, and both involved Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. All Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft were eventually grounded by the FAA from March 13, 2019 to November 18, 2020. Over 300 Boeing 737 Max aircraft were grounded because of loss of aircraft control issues due to activation of a computerized Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) that caused multiple automated nosedives, which required complicated procedures to override and correct.

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