Boeing Max grounding goes global as carriers follow FAA order
- The grounding follows the incident on January 5, when a rear left part of the fuselage of Flight 1282 was blown out, leaving the hole resembling the opening for a door
- The 737 Max is by far Boeing’s most popular aircraft and its biggest source of revenue
The grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max 9 quickly gathered pace, with carriers from the US to Panama to Turkey pulling the model from service for inspections after a fuselage section on a brand-new Alaska Airlines jet blew out during flight.
After Alaska Air kept its fleet of 65 737 Max 9s on the ground following the incident on January 5, United Airlines Holdings, the model’s top operator, followed suit with some jets. Then the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a temporary grounding of 171 planes, accelerating the response among other airlines. Aeromexico took all of its Max 9s out of service, and Panama’s Copa Airlines did the same with most of its jets.
The cascading grounding marks the most severe response since Boeing’s entire fleet of Max aircraft was parked in 2019 following two deadly crashes. The 737 Max is by far the company’s most popular aircraft and its biggest source of revenue. The blowout puts the focus back on Boeing’s manufacturing controls just as it was gearing up to raise output of its cash-cow model and turn the corner on past defects.
“We are very fortunate this didn’t end up in something more tragic,” Jennifer Homendy, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a press conference in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday. “We’ve now determined based on our definition of substantial damage that this is an accident, not an incident.”
Only two US airlines operate the 737 Max 9 variant: United with 79, and Alaska Air with its 65. Alaska said late Saturday it was again removing 18 737 Max 9s that it had already returned to service based on recent maintenance, and said it would wait for details of additional work required by the FAA.