Alaska Air crash fallout: DGCA asks Indian airlines for urgent checks on Max aircrafts
DGCA) on Saturday asked Indian carriers to immediately inspect the emergency exits of their B737-8 Max aircraft as a precautionary measure following the Alaska Airlines incident on Friday.
An emergency exit door of Alaska Airlines's B737-9 Max aircraft – which was en route from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California – blew out soon after takeoff, forcing the plane to conduct an emergency landing back in Portland on Friday evening.
Air India Express, SpiceJet, and Akasa Air have B737-8 Max aircraft in their fleet in the country. In total, the three airlines have 43 737 Max aircraft in their fleet.
But all of them are of the 737-8 Max variant.
DGCA head Vikram Dev Dutt confirmed saying that the regulator has asked the airlines to complete checks by 7 January.
«We are studying the incident closely and have asked airlines to complete the checks on their emergency exit, » Dutt said.
As the cabin suddenly got depressurised, certain passengers reported their phones were sucked out of their hands and thrown out of the large hole.
The aircraft landed safely back at Portland airport with all 171 passengers and six flight crew members.
The DGCA said on Saturday, 'Following the Alaska Airlines incident involving a Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft, there have been no inputs/guidance from Boeing so far. None of the Indian air operators have Boeing 737-9 Max as part of their fleet yet.'
'However, as an abundant precautionary measure, the DGCA has directed all Indian air operators to carry out a one-time inspection of the emergency exits immediately on all Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft currently operating as part of their fleet,' the regulator added.
«We do not have any 737-9 Max in our fleet. We will adhere to the DGCA directive on the
