Boeing implements additional quality inspections for 737 MAX aircrafts

Boeing has announced the implementation of additional quality inspections for its 737 MAX planes in response to a mid-air blowout of a cabin panel in an Alaska Airlines MAX 9 earlier this month, as stated by the head of its commercial planes division.

In a communication to the company’s global workforce on Monday, Stan Deal, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, revealed that a team would be dispatched to supplier Spirit AeroSystems, the entity responsible for manufacturing and installing the plug door involved in the incident. This team’s objective is to assess and approve Spirit’s work on the plugs before fuselages are transported to Boeing’s production facilities in Washington state, USA.

The announcement of Boeing’s enhanced quality inspections follows the directive issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday, stating that all 737 MAX 9 planes must remain grounded until Boeing provides further data in the aftermath of the alarming Alaska Airlines incident. The FAA emphasized that the Boeing 737-9 MAX will stay grounded until a thorough inspection and maintenance, along with a review of inspection data, are conducted for the safety of American travelers.

The FAA clarified that only after inspecting 40 planes will the agency review the results to determine whether it is safe for the MAX 9s to resume flying. In solidarity with this directive, Alaska Airlines also announced the grounding of its fleet of 737-9 aircraft for the same safety concerns.

Stan Deal emphasized in his letter that the actions outlined therein are distinct from the FAA’s ongoing investigation. However, he expressed plans to enhance oversight of MAX production. In addition to door plug inspections, Boeing teams will conduct checks at 50 other points in Spirit AeroSystems’ production process.

Both Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems will open their 737 production facilities to airline customers for carriers to perform their own inspections. Boeing is set to conduct employee sessions on quality management and bring in an external party to independently assess its production process.

Deal emphasized, “Everything we do must conform to the requirements in our QMS (quality management system). Anything less is unacceptable. It is through this standard that we must operate to provide our customers and their passengers complete confidence in Boeing airplanes.”

Boeing 737 MAX jets have faced worldwide groundings in the past. In October 2018, they were grounded for nearly two years following crashes in Indonesia (189 fatalities) and Ethiopia (157 fatalities) five months later.