The Boeing 737 MAX model can be said to be fateful and difficult, and it is difficult to resume flying in China and recently obtained key permits from Chinese regulators, which should continue to deliver aircraft to Chinese airlines, but a Boeing plane in the United States has been exposed to a frightening scene. Although the 737 MAX9 model landed safely, some media revealed that China is considering grounding all Boeing MAX models, which is undoubtedly worse for the United States and Boeing.
According to a statement by Alaska Airlines, at around 5 p.m. on January 5, the Boeing 737MAX9 passenger plane operating Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 took off from Portland, Oregon, and was scheduled to fly to Ontario, California, with 174 passengers and six crew members on board. However, no one expected that a "frightening scene" occurred, and the passenger plane began to turn back 6 minutes after takeoff, and landed at the take-off airport 20 minutes later, during which it flew to a maximum altitude of 4,976 meters. And according to footage taken from the exterior of the airliner, a door at the back of the cabin that could be used as an emergency exit has fallen off. Photos of passengers circulating on social media showed a porthole and the surrounding siding "disappearing", leaving a large hole that resembles an "open-door" plane.
Some frightened passengers told the media that among a mother and son sitting on the seats next to the "hole", the shirt worn by the boy was affected by the loss of pressure inside and outside the cabin, and was torn and sucked out of the cabin by strong winds, and some passengers' mobile phones were also sucked out of the cabin.
After the accident, although no one was injured, it was almost fatal, and Alaska Airlines immediately announced that it would ground 65 of its aircraft of the same type. And on January 6, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the temporary grounding of about 171 of U.S. airlines' aircraft for safety checks.
If the United States does this, European countries will certainly not be able to sit still. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has also decided to ground the Boeing 737MAX 9 after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the temporary grounding of the Boeing 737MAX 9. Reuters reported on January 7, citing the European Aviation Safety Agency, that the European Aviation Administration has adopted the Federal Aviation Administration's emergency airworthiness directive for the Boeing 737MAX 9 airliner.
To add insult to injury, some media said that China has also begun to consider grounding Boeing's models. According to Bloomberg on January 7, citing two sources, "China's aviation regulator is holding an emergency meeting to consider a response to the incident, including the possible grounding of all Boeing 737 MAX family aircraft in China."
With the United States and Europe taking action first, it is reasonable for the Civil Aviation Administration of China to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the response. The aircraft involved in the Jan. 5 accident was actually a "new aircraft" by commercial airline standards, and the Boeing 737 MAX9 was first registered in November last year and flew only 145 missions. Some US media said that the technical problems behind the incident on the 5th may be a unique isolated case, but the Boeing 737 MAX series aircraft may have an extremely "worrying" history.
Because of the frequent accidents, this time encountered this kind of "frightening moment", and the safety performance of the Boeing 737 MAX passenger aircraft was even more questionable. Since its launch in 2018, the Boeing 737 MAX passenger aircraft has suffered two major air crashes in less than half a year, namely the two major crashes of Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019, resulting in a total of 346 deaths, including several Chinese citizens. Therefore, even if China really makes and implements the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX passenger plane, there is no doubt that it is responsible for life, and now even the FAA and Boeing have not investigated the cause, let alone completely solved the fatal problem, how can this aircraft continue to fly missions?
In addition, the Boeing 737 MAX model has been "plagued by many disasters" in recent years, and various design flaws and faults are even more untrustworthy. As mentioned above, the two 737MAX8 aircraft crashed in October 2018 and March 2019 due to flight control system design flaws, and the 737 MAX was grounded around the world for nearly two years before resuming flights in December 2020, and in April 2023, Boeing said that some of the 737 MAX tail mounting parts were using a "non-standard manufacturing process", which led to misaligned boreholes and had to postpone the delivery date of the new aircraft. In December 2023, it was revealed that the rudder control system may have loose bolts and needs to be inspected. Some analysts believe that the repeated mistakes of the Boeing 737 MAX have exposed major problems in Boeing's internal management, design and manufacturing, and quality control that cannot be ignored.
For the U.S. and Boeing, China would certainly suffer significant losses if it did issue a grounding order for safety inspections and wait for U.S. regulators to release their findings. For the U.S. and Boeing, the 737 series is Boeing's best-selling jet ever, with pre-orders in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Boeing reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2021 for two major accidents in Ethiopia and Indonesia, for which it paid $2.5 billion. On the one hand, the delivery of new aircraft will be affected, you must know that Boeing only received a key license from Chinese regulators at the end of last year, but this good news may be "bamboo basket water" again, and China will only gradually resume commercial operation of the 737MAX model in early 2023, this accident is undoubtedly a "worse" blow for Boeing.
On the other hand, if China issues a grounding order, it is likely to be regarded as an "unfriendly move" or even a "bargaining chip in the game between China and the United States" by the cautious US public opinion. At the time of the previous Sino-US summit meeting in San Francisco, some US media released high-profile rumors that China intends to buy Boeing 737 MAX, saying that "China is likely to release its intention to buy Boeing 737 MAX again to reflect the sincerity of thawing Sino-US bilateral relations." However, if China really has the intention of buying the Boeing 737 MAX, it is only a normal commercial partnership, but the US media is deliberately moving things in the direction of "China compromising with the United States". It can be expected that if China really grounds the Boeing 737 MAX model, US public opinion will definitely make another wave of noise, which will have an adverse impact on Sino-US relations.
However, of course, the Chinese side is not afraid of the shadow and can deal with it in accordance with laws and regulations, and these measures are all taken for granted. For Boeing and the United States, the glimmer of hope is still so "out of reach". If Boeing wants to restore the Chinese market and win back the confidence of Chinese passengers and users, it should learn how to build safe planes again, instead of thinking about how to build momentum in public opinion or be careless in building airplanes.