Another shocking accident on a MAX: A piece of fuselage comes off in flight. FAA grounds all max9s.
Update Jan. 6, 8 p.m. The Federal Aviation Administration (Faa), the U.S. agency in charge of aviation safety, announced that it has [...]
Alaska Airlines
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United States of America
Update Jan. 6, 8 p.m. Lhe Federal Aviation Administration (Faa), the U.S. agency in charge of aviation safety, has announced that it has Ordered temporary grounding of some Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft after the crash on an Alaska Airlines flight. The order affects all aircraft operating in American skies, just under 200 machines, but it is not ruled out that other agencies around the world will make a similar decision in the coming hours.
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Faa administrator Mike Whitaker explained that the agency will require immediate inspections of some aircraft before they can return to flight.
Fina update
'Cursed'. Which translated can mean 'hapless', 'wretched'. That's what someone called the Boeing 737 MAX after the Two accidents that claimed 346 lives in 2019 and the Grounding of all airplane specimens for 20 months.
A misfortune from which the latest evolution of the glorious 737 does not seem to want to break free. Right last week we had written that an airline (remained anonymous) Had discovered two loose bolts (one of which was missing the safety screw) during a routine maintenance procedure on the tail rudder.
Discovery that had prompted Boeing to recommend that all companies that have the more than 1,300 MAXs currently in service in their fleets perform checks on that part and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to order U.S. companies to keep it updated on the outcome of the checks performed.
It was theyet another headache for the aircraft and for Boeing, to which was added on the evening of Jan. 5 a far more serious one when a MAX 9 of the American company Alaska Airlines just took off from the airport in Portland (Oregon, United States) and headed to Ontario to California has lost a panel on the left side of the fuselage that incorporates one of the emergency exits located behind the wings, which 'flew' off, opening a two-by-two-foot gash in the fuselage.
At the time of the accident the plane was gaining altitude and was at 16,000 feet, just under 5,000 meters in altitude. The pilots reversed course and a few minutes later the plane landed without further consequences in Portland. The fact that no one was seated in the seat next to the emergency exit and that the plane was still climbing with the 'fasten seatbelt' sign still on meant that There were no deaths or injuries.
However, given the seriousness of the incident, Alaska Airlines has decided as a precautionary measure to ground its entire Boeing 737 MAX 9 fleet, consisting of 65 aircraft. The Seattle-based company has a fleet of 315 aircraft, and the grounding of one out of 5 aircraft will cause in the coming days the Cancellation of hundreds and hundreds of flights.
The flight AS 1282 was operated by a MAX brand new: the aircraft had been delivered to Alaska Airlines on October 31., just over two months ago. But in his short life he had recorded, according to U.S. media reports, pressurization problems, not such, however, as to require maintenance and in any case to cause the sudden detachment of an entire fuselage panel.
It remains to be seen whether instructions or recommendations will come from Boeing or the FAA to the other companies that have MAX in service, chief among them United Airlines. Or whether other companies, on their own initiative, will decide to ground the aircraft to conduct inspections on that part of the fuselage.
In Europe, the only airline to have the aircraft in service is Turkish Airlines, which has five 737 MAX 9s in its fleet. The smallest model, the MAX 8, is used only by Neos among the Italian companies. However the low-cost Ryanair, which has its own main base outside Ireland and the United Kingdom at Bergamo Orio al Serio, has as many as 84 in service, in the special MAX 8-200 200-seat configuration. And he also ordered the MAX 10.
Boeing is in the process of certification procedures for the other two MAX models: the smaller one in the 'family', the MAX 7, and the larger one, the MAX 10. It will have to be seen whether these further accidents or incidents will delay the delivery to customers of the two new models, which Boeing hopes can take place in 2024 for the MAX 7 and 2025 for the MAX 10.
