After the appalling door dislodgement accident on Alaska Airlines' Boeing 737 MAX 9 plane, and at the time when the FAA announced an in-depth investigation, United Airlines said that it had found loose bolts on the inline doors and other parts of a number of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft during the inspection. Boeing's manufacturing quality has declined in recent years, and if the production phase is the cause of the door dropping, it will also deal a serious blow to Boeing's reputation. It is reported that in addition to the follow-up by domestic regulators in the United States, the Chinese side is also closely monitoring the latest progress of the investigation of this incident.
After the appalling Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 "door fell off after takeoff" accident, although the emergency landing was not dangerous, there were no casualties, and the US National Transportation Safety Board investigation team has found the "key components" of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 passenger plane falling off in the air on January 5 late at night on January 7, which also helps to find the cause of the aviation safety accident of the Boeing 737 MAX series passenger aircraft. However, according to the Observer, on January 8, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines both announced that they found that the bolts of many of the same aircraft were loosened, and there is no doubt that the quality of Boeing's products will become the object of public opinion and discussion.
According to CCTV News reported on January 6, Alaska Airlines issued a statement that the Boeing 737MAX9 passenger plane operating Flight 1282 flew from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California on the same day, and the passenger plane had an accident shortly after takeoff, and then returned to the aircraft urgently, carrying 171 passengers and 6 crew members at the time. The New York Times reported that the aircraft had just been certified in November 2023 and was put into commercial service that month, with only 145 flights flown so far.
The Federal Aviation Administration said that before the plane returned, the crew had reported the loss of pressure of the plane, and some witnesses said that "part of the fuselage of the passenger plane fell in the air" at the time of the incident. Judging from the product description of Boeing's models, this hatch is generally used for long-range flight missions as an emergency escape exit in an emergency, but most American airlines use a 27-kilogram "door plug" provided by Boeing to seal this part and use it as an ordinary bulkhead to arrange seats.
It can also be seen from the words of the eyewitnesses that the emergency hatch burst out directly, causing an instantaneous loss of pressure in the cabin. One passenger said, "The dropped parts are as wide as a refrigerator and about two-thirds the height of a refrigerator." There was a loud noise on the left side of the plane, and all the oxygen masks popped out. I heard that a child sitting in that row was sucked out of the body, but luckily his mother held him tightly and he didn't have an accident. "In fact, Alaska Airlines and the FAA should be glad that the airliner did not climb to a high altitude, otherwise the loss of pressure would have been more violent, and there is a high probability of passenger casualties, and their responsibility is not to find the detached hatch and investigate.
As a result, bolt problems may have been the main cause of the accident, and preliminary investigations have shown that this situation is not unique, but widespread on Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. According to CCTV media reports on January 9, in the preliminary investigation organized by United Airlines after the accident, it found that there were installation problems with the "door plugs" on the emergency escape hatches of several aircraft, such as serious bolt loosening problems. It can be said that if it weren't for the Alaska Airlines accident, United Airlines would probably have this "thrilling" situation, and then it would not have been a little bit of the cost of maintenance costs and flight closures.
Such carelessness, if it is really a problem with Boeing's production and manufacturing, can only show that Boeing's production quality has led to continuous failures, and this is also fatal. Previously, an international airline discovered a missing nut on a bolt during a routine maintenance of its rudder control linkage, and Boeing advised it to "do an inspection". The FAA said Boeing later found that a nut on another undelivered plane was not tightened. It can be seen that there are serious problems in Boeing's manufacturing level and regulatory system.
The FAA, of course, will not sit idly by, noting in a statement that it "is closely monitoring this lock-on inspection of the Boeing 737 MAX and will consider additional action based on any further findings of loose or missing hardware." Ironically, on December 28 last year, the FAA claimed that Boeing was urging airlines to check their 737 MAX rudder control systems for possible looseness. The rudder system that is critical to the plane's flight has failed, and Boeing is playing with human life.
You must know that due to flight control system design flaws, two 737MAX8 airliners crashed in October 2018 and March 2019, causing a total of 346 deaths, and in April 2023, Boeing revealed that the 737MAX aircraft used a "non-standard manufacturing process" when installing accessories on the tail, resulting in the problem of misalignment of drilling holes. The repeated failures of the Boeing 737 MAX have once again exposed major problems in the design and manufacturing, quality control, supervision and management of Boeing.
Reuters also quoted sources as saying that in addition to domestic regulators in the United States, China is also closely monitoring the latest developments in this incident. It is worth mentioning that Chinese airlines, as a major customer of Boeing, according to relevant data, have a total of 97 737MAX models in China, and before the grounding, China's fleet of this type also accounted for more than a quarter of the world's aircraft. On December 29, 2023, Boeing China has just released the news that "all 737MAX in China's civil aviation have resumed operation", which is also very embarrassing.
In response to the ensuing safety doubts, although Boeing responded that "safety is our primary consideration", but as the so-called "listen to its words and watch its deeds", the frequent accidents and revenue plunges in recent years have not only not alerted Boeing, but made it not work production quality. Boeing should put more attention to the plane itself, and nip in the bud low-level mistakes such as "loose bolts" or even "missing". It can be said that if fundamental changes are not made, Boeing will not only have a bad reputation, but also the "top spot" of global civil aviation is estimated to not last long.