© Reuters. People sitting on an airplane next to a missing window and a portion of a side wall of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which was headed to Ontario, California and suffered depressurization shortly after takeoff, in Portland, Oregon, USA, on January 5, 2024. this
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration said on Saturday it will order the temporary grounding of certain Boeing (NYSE:) 737 MAX 9 aircraft after an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday was forced to make an emergency landing following the loss of part of the fuselage.
FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said the agency requires immediate inspections of certain planes before they can fly again. The order affects 171 aircraft worldwide.
The emergency airworthiness directive will require operators to inspect aircraft before conducting new flights that do not comply with inspection cycles. The required inspections will take between four and eight hours by plane.
United Airlines also operates the MAX 9 and had no immediate comment.
Alaska Airlines said early Saturday that it had voluntarily and temporarily grounded its fleet of 65 MAX 9 aircraft following the incident. It has resumed operations using about a quarter of the planes after inspections that turned up no concerning findings.
It's unclear whether the FAA directive will mirror Alaska's inspections. Alaska canceled about 100 flights on Saturday, or 13% of scheduled operations, according to FlightAware.
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) President Sara Nelson said the union “supports the FAA's swift and decisive action to ground certain 737 MAX 9 fleets that do not comply with specified inspection cycles.” in the Emergency Airworthiness Directive. This is a critical step to ensure the safety of all crew and passengers, as well as confidence in aviation security.”
Sen. JD (NASDAQ:) Vance, a Republican on the committee that oversees the FAA, said, “The FAA has assured me that the 737-MAX is safe; last night's near-disaster calls that determination into question.”
He added that all Americans deserve a full explanation from Boeing and the FAA about what went wrong and what steps are being taken to ensure another incident does not occur in the future.
