The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an emergency airworthiness directive requiring the temporary grounding of 171 737 MAX9 aircraft operating in U.S. territories. The main reason for the grounding was that the left emergency hatch of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX9 aircraft suddenly fell off after takeoff yesterday.
Many industry insiders told reporters that this is an extremely rare danger in the history of civil aviation.
On Friday evening local time in the United States, Alaska Airlines was operating flight AS1282 from Portland to Ontario. When the aircraft climbed to an altitude of about 16,000 feet, the emergency hatch on the left center and rear fell off in the air.
Afterwards, the plane quickly returned to Portland and landed safely, but the emergency hatch that flew off was gone, including the seat next to the hatch.
It is understood that there were 171 passengers and 6 crew members on board. No passengers were sitting in the seat next to the door at that time, but the clothes and other items of nearby passengers were sucked out of the plane. There are no reports of casualties so far.
This is a brand new 737MXAX9 aircraft, which was delivered to Alaska Airlines in October last year. The emergency hatch that flies away is only opened to evacuate passengers in an emergency, but the emergency hatch of Alaska Airlines' 737MXAX9 aircraft is sealed and not used.
An industry insider told reporters that the above-mentioned emergency hatch is set up to meet the requirement that passengers on the extended 737 series such as the 737MXA9/Max10 with relatively dense seats can be evacuated within 90 seconds. However, airlines can also choose not to enable this emergency door. The cabin door can be sealed with a hatch-shaped door with a window. Alaska Airlines, which has a relatively low cabin layout density, chose this type. When the aircraft leaves the factory, it is sealed by a device door produced by Spirit. The outline of the cabin door can be seen from the outside, and the inside is a normal cabin wall.
Regarding why the "cabin door" of this aircraft fell off in the air, Captain Chen Jianguo, an insider in the civil aviation industry, analyzed that from the perspective of passengers, this position is completely a window, no different from other windows. In other words, there are no handles or emergency handles that passengers can accidentally touch. Some media suspect that it is most likely a problem that occurred during the manufacturing or installation process of the aircraft before leaving the factory.
In response to this incident, Boeing also issued a statement, taking note of the incident, and the Boeing technical team is cooperating with the investigation of the incident.
After the above-mentioned dangerous incident occurred at Alaska Airlines, the company immediately announced that it would take precautionary measures to ground all of its 737 MAX9 aircraft, a total of 65 aircraft, pending the completion of comprehensive maintenance and safety inspections before resuming flights.
The FAA later announced that it would temporarily ground 171 737 MAX9 aircraft operating in the United States. For this reason, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines have been forced to cancel more than 100 flights.
According to statistics, as of December last year, the airline currently operating the most 737 MAX9 aircraft is United Airlines, with a total of 79 aircraft, followed by Alaska Airlines and Aeromexico (18 aircraft), Turkish Airlines and Flydubai also have 5 and 3 aircraft respectively.
However, according to the reporter's understanding, my country's mainland airlines have not yet received the 737MAX9 aircraft. The 737MAX8 aircraft was previously grounded in China.
In January 2023, the Boeing 737MAX, which had been grounded for nearly four years due to two air crashes, resumed commercial passenger operations in mainland China.
Not long ago, Boeing China President Liu Qing revealed in his notes that all 737MAXs of China Civil Aviation have resumed operations, and Boeing has also delivered new aircraft to Chinese customers.
Data released by Boeing in 2022 showed that there were approximately 290 undelivered aircraft, of which Chinese customers accounted for nearly half of the total.
According to the reporter’s understanding, Boeing’s Zhoushan factory is mainly responsible for the interior installation, painting, maintenance and delivery of 737MAX aircraft. This is Boeing’s first facility of its kind outside the United States and one of Boeing’s largest civil aircraft cooperation projects outside the United States.
Prior to this, the Boeing Factory in Zhoushan had actually completed the delivery of two aircraft at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019. However, these aircraft were completed in Seattle for interior assembly and painting, and only delivery work was done in Zhoushan. After the delivery resumes in the future, Zhoushan is expected to welcome more "green" 737MAX, and employees at the Zhoushan Boeing Factory will also officially start assembly and painting work in the completion center and painting hangar respectively.
Liu Qing revealed in his notes that the Boeing Park in Zhoushan recently organized a painting and maintenance skills competition to further improve business capabilities and prepare for the delivery of aircraft.