SEATTLE — After five days of inspections and 40 evaluations, Boeing’s 737 MAX 9 remains grounded — without a clear timeline to take off.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday it had begun reviewing data from the first round of inspections on the grounded 737 MAX 9 planes. Those planes — about 171 of them — have become the subject of regulatory and consumer scrutiny after a door plug, installed to cover an unused emergency exit, flew out on an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland on Jan. 5.
The FAA grounded the MAX 9 planes that fill the space with a door plug shortly after the incident. Investigators believe bolts meant to keep the plug attached to the plane were either installed incorrectly or missing entirely.
The planes will remain grounded until they are inspected, following instructions from Boeing that the FAA has not yet approved.
On Wednesday, the FAA said 40 preliminary inspections had been completed. But that announcement was not a sweeping signal that the MAX 9 was heading back to the skies anytime soon. Rather, it was an incremental step in what is now expected to be a lengthy process.
“All 737-9 MAX aircraft with door plugs will remain grounded pending the FAA’s review and final approval of an inspection and maintenance process that satisfies all FAA safety requirements,” the agency wrote in a statement. “Once the FAA approves an inspection and maintenance process, it will be required on every grounded 737-9 MAX prior to future operation.”
The guidelines for inspections — the crucial step to getting the planes off the ground — have already been through a roller coaster of approvals and revisions.
In the meantime, flight delays and cancellations are expected to continue as the airlines scramble to make up for the parked planes. There were 121 flights canceled and 335 flights delayed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as of Wednesday evening, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
Boeing said it had submitted instructions to Alaska and United Airlines, the two U.S.-based carriers operating the MAX 9, just days after the safety incident, then walked those instructions back the same day.
The FAA said it had approved a method to comply with the emergency airworthiness directive, something the regulatory agency issues that requires immediate action to correct an unsafe condition. But the FAA said the next day that Boeing had to revise its initial instructions “because of feedback received in response.”
On Friday, the FAA said it was “encouraged by the exhaustive nature” of Boeing’s revised instructions. But it would not give final approval until it had reviewed data from the first round of inspections.
“We are working to make sure nothing like this happens again,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said Friday. “Our only concern is the safety of American travelers and the Boeing 737-9 MAX will not return to the skies until we are entirely satisfied it is safe.”
Six days after its announcement and five days after Alaska began inspections, FAA said the airlines operating the MAX 9 had completed the first inspections and it is now reviewing the findings.
The FAA and Boeing will compile the findings and determine the “next steps in order to return the 737-9 MAX fleet safely back to service,” Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said in a video statement sent to customers. There isn’t yet an estimate for how long that process will take, he continued.
The airline extended its cancellations of MAX 9 flights through Friday, tacking on two additional days from its most recent cancellation announcement.
At Alaska’s Sea-Tac hangar, Minicucci walked through an inspection with the maintenance and engineering team and “witnessed firsthand the rigor they bring to their work,” he said.
Meanwhile, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun did his own walk-through at a Wichita, Kan., facility, where he met with workers from Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems.
Spirit builds the entire fuselage for the MAX 9, including the door plug at the center of this incident, and sends the jet to Boeing’s Renton plant by train. There, Boeing mechanics and quality inspectors complete the cabin interior. The door plug was to have been put in place at Spirit’s facility and then inspected by Boeing at the Renton plant.
The fuselage incident and the heightened scrutiny of both Boeing and Spirit doesn’t appear to have driven a wedge between the two companies. Calhoun told roughly 200 workers at a town hall Wednesday the two companies would remain in lockstep.
Engineers, mechanics and inspectors at both Boeing and Spirit are going to “speak the same language on this in every way, shape or form,” Calhoun said, according to a statement shared by Boeing. “We’re going to learn from it, and then we’re going to apply it to literally everything else we do together.”
In the days since the fuselage blowout, lawmakers, regulators and airlines have looked back at Boeing’s troubled history — and ramped up its scrutiny of the manufacturer.
The FAA opened an investigation into Boeing’s quality control systems and the manufacturer’s role in what led the door plug to come loose. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., sent a letter to the FAA demanding more information about the agency’s oversight of Boeing, oversight that came under intense congressional scrutiny five years ago after 346 people were killed in two MAX crashes.
Alaska said last week it planned to increase its own oversight of Boeing’s production line in order to ensure its planes were safe to operate. Ireland-based Ryanair also upped its inspections of MAX planes following a request from Boeing, a noteworthy response because the airline doesn’t fly the MAX 9.
Ryanair does operate other MAX planes, but it doesn’t have a panel filled with a door plug, meaning it wouldn’t have to worry about the same mishap on its flights. Still, the airline said it would double the number of engineers it has on the ground at production facilities — from six to 12 in Seattle and four to eight in Wichita — according to Sky News.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the fuselage blowout on Alaska Flight 1282.
On Wednesday, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which Cantwell chairs, expressing “deep concern” about the impact of a potential government shutdown.
A lapse in funding would “dramatically hinder” the NTSB’s investigation into Alaska Flight 1282, Homendy said, and could delay its ability to deliver timely safety recommendations. A partial government shutdown will set in late this week if Congress does not agree on funding bills, but lawmakers still have a few days to vote on a potential compromise to keep the government running.
Members of the Commerce Committee met with Homendy and FAA Administrator Whitaker Wednesday. According to Roll Call, Homendy said then that the investigation is still in its preliminary stage and it’s not clear if the accident resulted from a manufacturing error.
“Right now we need to figure out what happened to this aircraft,” she said. “The evidence tells us a story of what occurred.”
