Last Friday, images of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 of Alaska Airlines, which suffered depressurization of the passenger cabin after a piece of its fuselage detached. The aircraft managed to return to the Portland airport, United States, from where it had taken off a few minutes before, and fortunately none of the people on board suffered serious injuries.
However, the incident has once again put Boeing in the spotlight, which already has unpleasant records with the 737 MAX 8. On Saturday, a few hours after the event, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a Guidance on Emergency Airworthiness that suspended operations of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 globally.
The order in question affects models that include in their configuration a component called mid-cabin door plug (central cabin door plug). As its name indicates, it is a plug that seals one of the holes in the fuselage in which an emergency exit can be installed to evacuate passengers in the event of an accident.
Boeing 737 MAX 9 that carry more than 200 passengers must have an additional emergency door, establishes aeronautical regulations. Airlines that include fewer seats on the aircraft should not have that additional evacuation exit. Thus, The manufacturer locks it using a sealed panel the same size as the door.. In the case of Alaska Airlines, it was precisely that component that came loose and caused the depressurization.
Airlines affected by the suspension of the Boeing 737 MAX 9
As not all Boeing 737 MAX 9s in service include the center cap, Not all units are susceptible to revision. Even so, several airlines have decided to stop operations with all the models they have in their fleets.
In the United States, only United Airlines and Alaska Airlines They operate the Boeing 737 MAX 9. The first has 79 units, while the second has 65. In the case of United, the company chose to pause flights with its entire fleet of this model, even though 33 of them had received the corresponding maintenance checks and were cleared to fly.
Alaska Airlines, for its part, once again withdrew 18 units from the fleet, despite the fact that they had also been inspected and considered suitable. Besides, Copa Airlines indicated that it will ground almost all of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 that it currently operates. Of the 29 airplanes of this model that the Panamanian airline has, 21 correspond to the model with a central cap. These will remain inactive until the required inspections are completed.
Aeromexico is another of the companies that have been affected by the suspension of flights of the Boeing 737 MAX 9. The Mexican firm has decided to temporarily cease operations with its 19 aircraft belonging to this model. While Turkish Airlines Nor will it fly its fleet of 5 units until the technical reviews requested by the Turkish authorities are completed.
In addition to the airlines mentioned here, it is estimated that another twenty Boeing 737 MAX 9 are in the hands of different companies. To mention a few examples, Indonesia Lion Air It has 3 units of this aircraft; while the Dutch Corendon Dutch Airlines, a subsidiary of the Corendon Group tourism group, has 2 aircraft of this model for charter services. At the moment, none of these companies have commented on whether they will obey the US FAA directive.
What is happening in Europe?
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has decided to adopt the airworthiness guideline issued by the United States. This means that any airline belonging to European Union countries operating the Boeing 737 MAX 9 in its affected configuration would have to cease flights immediately.
The agency has clarified that this is not currently happening, since this variant of the 737 is not used by any airline from EU member states. However, he has decided to adhere to the order issued by the North American authorities. This is how he explained it in an official statement:
“EASA made the decision to adopt the FAA Emergency Airworthiness Directive even though, to the Agency’s knowledge and also based on statements from the FAA and Boeing, no airline in an EASA Member State EASA currently operates one aircraft in the relevant configuration.
In the specific configuration covered by the guideline, an outlet in the middle of the cabin is replaced by a plug-in panel. This configuration is typically adopted by airlines conducting lower density operations (with lower passenger capacity) where this additional departure is not required to meet evacuation safety requirements.
The 737-9 aircraft operating in Europe do not have this configuration and are therefore not required to be grounded by the directive and can continue to operate normally. “EASA is in contact with the FAA on this matter and will closely follow the investigation into the Alaska Airlines incident.”
EASA