The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered the grounding of 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes until further notice, following an incident on Friday where part of an Alaska Airlines jet’s fuselage came off mid-air.
The FAA said it was conducting a thorough inspection of the affected planes to ensure their safety, and that its first priority was “keeping the flying public safe”.
The incident occurred on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, which had to make an emergency landing after a large section of the plane’s outer shell detached shortly after take-off.
Passengers reported seeing the night sky and the city lights of Portland through the hole in the fuselage, and some suffered minor injuries from the wind and debris.
Authorities are still looking for the missing plug door, which is believed to have fallen in the western suburbs of Portland, and have asked the public for assistance.
Boeing’s CEO Dave Calhoun said the company was working closely with the FAA, the airlines, and the investigators to understand and address the cause of the incident, and that safety was the company’s main focus.
He also announced that Boeing would hold an all-employee meeting on Tuesday to discuss the incident and the company’s response.
The grounding of the 737 Max 9s has caused significant disruptions for thousands of passengers, as major US airlines have cancelled hundreds of flights.
Alaska Airlines, which operates 65 of the affected planes, said it had cancelled 163 flights, or 21% of its schedule, on Sunday, and that the impact of the grounding would last until at least mid-week.
United Airlines, which has 79 of the planes in its fleet, said it had cancelled about 180 flights on Sunday, and that it was working to rebook or refund the affected customers.
Other airlines that have grounded the 737 Max 9s for inspections include Turkish Airlines, Panama’s Copa Airlines, and Aeromexico.
The 737 Max 9 is a variant of the 737 Max, which was grounded worldwide for 18 months after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
The 737 Max was allowed to resume flights in late 2020 after Boeing made several changes to the software and hardware of the plane, and the FAA approved its return to service.
However, the plane has faced several other issues since then, such as electrical problems, faulty rudder systems, and supply errors.
Boeing has delivered about 1,300 737 Max aircraft to customers, and has said it would increase the pace of deliveries after resolving some of the recent problems.
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