The American airline, United Airlines, announced on Monday that it had discovered, during an initial inspection of the canceled emergency exits in its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft, a number of screws that were not tightened well, in a development that comes three days after an emergency exit of an aircraft of the same model, belonging to Alaska, broke off. Airlines” in flight.
United Airlines owns the largest fleet of 737 MAX 9 aircraft, as it has 79 aircraft of this model, all of which are currently grounded by order of the US Civil Aviation Administration, which banned the flights of these aircraft pending a full inspection.
On Monday, the air transport company said in a statement that “since we began inspections on Saturday, we have made discoveries that appear to be related to problems in installing the plugs” of emergency exits.
She added that she found, “for example, bolts that needed additional tightening.”
The company continued, “We are working to return our Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft to service in the coming days.”
United said that since Friday’s accident, it had canceled 200 flights that its Max 9 planes were supposed to take, noting that it also expected “major cancellations” on Tuesday.
On Friday, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 plane was forced to make an emergency landing after the plane’s canceled emergency exit separated while it was flying on a domestic flight from Portland (Oregon) to Ontario (California).
Following this accident, the US Federal Aviation Administration ordered 171 aircraft of this type to be grounded pending inspection.
The Boeing 737 MAX 9 is equipped with many emergency exits. Therefore, Boeing offers its customers the possibility of eliminating some of these exits using plugs if the number of remaining exits is sufficient compared to the number of seats on the plane.
On Monday, the FAA announced it had approved a road map for carriers to complete inspections that include left and right door plugs, components and fasteners.
In its statement, United said it is still awaiting final approval for the full screening process.
In December, Boeing urged air carriers to conduct additional inspections of the rudder control system of its 737 MAX aircraft after an airline discovered during routine maintenance on one of its aircraft of this model a bolt missing its nut.
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2024-01-09 01:24:42
