FAA announces strict oversight of Boeing after Alaska Airlines crash
The Federal Aviation Administration will significantly increase oversight of Boeing , the agency said Friday, and the agency's head has said publicly that he believes there are "other production issues" at the company. News that highlights the seriousness of the accident that occurred on the Alaska Airlines plane six days ago.
The FAA will conduct a new audit of the Boeing 737-9 MAX production line and its suppliers, it said in a statement, after a panel broke off a plane in mid-flight, causing a dramatic emergency landing on Friday.
FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker told CNBC that the new MAX 9 had "significant problems" and "we believe there are other manufacturing issues."
The crash is the latest in a series of events that have shaken confidence in the aircraft maker as it tries to recover from a pair of MAX 9 crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed nearly 350 people.
The mistrust has also transferred to the financial markets, where the Seattle company's stock has plummeted in the last week, and this news certainly doesn't help it rebound, as we can see from the graph below:
The announcement of the audit to ensure compliance with approved quality procedures comes one day after the FAA announced a formal investigation into the cabin panel explosion of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 that led the agency to grounded 171 planes last week. The FAA said the results of the investigation “will determine the need for additional testing.”
The FAA said it will also review its decision to delegate some responsibilities to Boeing and will consider moving some functions to independent, third-party entities. This means that the federal body will no longer trust the internal certifications of the production company, but will want to control directly or through bodies appointed by it. A strong blow to Boeing's credibility.
“The 737-9 grounding and multiple production issues identified in recent years require us to examine every option to reduce risk,” Whitaker said in a statement.
Whitaker declined to give a timetable for the FAA's approval of inspection and maintenance instructions that would allow airlines to begin returning MAX 9 planes to service.
Most of the more than 200 737 MAX 9 planes used by airlines have a panel in place of the exit door. This is because not installing the emergency door allows you to recover a few tens of centimeters of space which, in a modern aircraft, means more passengers on board. For this reason, most airlines prefer the rigidly fixed panel to the door. 171 of the 200 aircraft produced in this configuration were grounded.
The Alaska Airlines plane, in service for just eight weeks, took off from Portland, Oregon, last Friday and was flying at 16,000 feet (4,900 m) when the panel came off the plane. The pilots returned the jet to Portland and the passengers suffered only minor injuries.
Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, the other major U.S. carrier operating 737 MAX 9 planes in this configuration, said they found loose parts on several grounded planes during preliminary checks, raising new concerns about how the family is being manufactured Boeing's best-selling jet.
The two carriers have canceled hundreds of flights since Saturday due to the grounded planes, which have not been replaced by other aircraft. A hard blow also for the airlines, and a real chaos in the lives of passengers.
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The article The FAA announces strict supervision of Boeing, after the Alaska Airlines accident comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-faa-annuncia-una-stretta-supervisione-su-boeing-dopo-lincidente-alla-alaska-airlines/ on Fri, 12 Jan 2024 17:22:25 +0000.