The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says it will not allow Boeing to increase production of the 737 MAX family until Boeing has resolved “quality control issues” uncovered by the agency after an in-flight blow out of a mid-exit door plug on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 on January 5.
“We grounded the Boeing 737-9 MAX within hours of the incident over Portland and made clear this aircraft would not go back into service until it was safe,” said FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker. “The exhaustive, enhanced review our team completed after several weeks of information gathering gives me and the FAA confidence to proceed to the inspection and maintenance phase. However, let me be clear: This won’t be back to business as usual for Boeing. We will not agree to any request from Boeing for an expansion in production or approve additional production lines for the 737 MAX until we are satisfied that the quality control issues uncovered during this process are resolved.”
The FAA increased oversight of Boeing’s production lines in the wake of the incident. It is scrutinizing Boeing’s compliance with manufacturing requirements and increasing the number of agency employees at all Boeing facilities. It also launched an analysis of potential changes to the way Boeing handles quality control at its production facilities.
Meanwhile, the FAA said it has approved the inspection and maintenance process that must be completed on all of the grounded 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft. Once an aircraft is inspected, the aircraft will be eligible to return to service.
The full agency statement is available here.
A lifelong aviation enthusiast, Douglas Royce is currently co-editor of four of Forecast International's Market Intelligence Services: Civil Aircraft Forecast, Military Aircraft Forecast, Rotorcraft Forecast, and Aviation Gas Turbine Forecast. As such, he plays a key role in many important projects that involve market sizing and forecasting for various segments of the world aerospace industry, as well as demand for related systems.
