US grounds some Boeing MAX planes for safety checks after cabin emergency
grounded certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 jetliners for safety checks following a cabin panel blowout that forced a new Alaska Airlines jet carrying passengers to make an emergency landing.
A piece of fuselage tore off the left side of the jet as it climbed following takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, on Friday, forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with all 171 passengers and six crew on board.
The plane had been in service for just eight weeks.
The FAA's decision is well short of the global grounding of Boeing MAX jets almost five years ago following two crashes that killed nearly 350 people. Still, it is another blow to Boeing as it tries to recover from back-to-back crises over safety and the pandemic under heavy debts.
The FAA did not rule out further action on Saturday as a probe began into the apparent structural failure, which left a rectangular hole in an area of fuselage reserved for an optional extra door but which is disactivated on Alaska's aircraft.
The Boeing 737 MAX 9s fitted with a special door replacement «plug» cannot fly until they are inspected and repaired if necessary, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
«The FAA is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight,» FAA chief Mike Whitaker said.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators were expected to arrive on the scene on Saturday afternoon.
Social media posts showed oxygen masks deployed and a portion of the aircraft's side wall missing.
A section of the fuselage reserved for the optional door had vanished, leaving a neat door-shaped gap. The seat next to the panel, which contained an
