A door came off an Alaska Airlines jet, bringing the plane dangerously close to a disaster.
The FAA has issued a warning, saying that this should never have occurred and must never happen again. In anticipation of safety checks, the FAA has ordered the grounding of 171 Boeing planes, most of which are flown by United Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
Additionally, the FAA has alerted Boeing that they are investigating the possibility that the aircraft manufacturer did not adequately verify that the finished products complied with the authorized design and were fit for safe operation.
Assembling passenger planes is challenging for workers, and even a little mistake might have catastrophic results. More than 170 planes were still out of commission after Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun admitted the company’s errors and assured employees that an incident similar to the panel burst in midair with Alaska Airlines “can never happen again.”
Following a public announcement by the FAA, 171 grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft may begin safety checks. In writing, Boeing has instructed its facilities and vendors to resolve these issues and conduct further system and process reviews.
Authorities had already begun investigating the Alaska Airlines plane the day before the window burst happened. The incident-causing Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft had just been in service for a month, having made less than 200 flights since its November 2023 launch. Some planes with fewer seats have a paneled-over escape door instead of an emergency exit panel; this one blew off, and the National Transportation Safety Board is looking into it.
More than $20 billion has been spent by Boeing in the aftermath of the two deadly disasters. Most of the families of the passengers who perished have made secret agreements with the corporation. The MAX’s design and development, Boeing’s openness with the FAA, and the company’s supervision and certification shortcomings have all been scrutinized.
As part of its efforts to overhaul the FAA’s certification process, Congress mandated in December that manufacturers provide certain safety-critical information.
