(Dan Tri) – The US calls on airlines operating 737-900ER aircraft to check the safety of these aircraft.
After the incident of the door seal coming off on the Boeing 737 MAX 9 right in the air, the US recommended that airlines inspecting the Boeing 737-900ER series use a similar door seal (Photo: Reuters).
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) late on January 21 recommended that airlines operating Boeing 737-900ER jets check door seals to ensure they are properly secured.
The FAA’s recommendation came after the FAA’s ban on 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft because of the door seal on the Alaska Airlines plane on January 5 while it was flying in mid-air.
The FAA has issued an Operator Safety Alert, revealing that some airlines have conducted additional inspections of door seals on the 737-900ER and have noted bolt findings during the process.
Boeing delivered the first 737-900ER in 2007 and the last in 2019. The 737-900ER uses the same door seal as the MAX series.
Door covers are a solution to cover excess emergency exits on airplanes, and airlines still add seats to this area.
Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, the only two US airlines flying the MAX 9, said they found loose bolts on multiple MAX 9 planes during preliminary inspections.
The FAA announced that MAX 9 aircraft will continue to be grounded until `it is deemed safe for them to return to service.`
Unlike the MAX 9 that had the problem of opening the door seal, it is a new aircraft with a low number of flights, the Boeing 737-900ER aircraft has more than 11 million operating hours and 3.9 million flight cycles.
Both United and Alaska said they will begin testing door seals on the 737-900ER.
United, which has 136 737-900ER aircraft, expects the inspection `to be completed within the next few days without disruption to our customers.`
Alaska said its inspections began several days ago and that they `have made no findings to date and expect to complete the remainder without disrupting our operations.`
Delta Air Lines, which operates the 900ER, said it had `chosen to take proactive measures to inspect the 737-900ER fleet`.
Globally, the three US airlines mentioned above operate the majority of 737-900ER aircraft with door seals.
On January 17, the FAA said inspections of an initial 40 Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets were complete.
FAA official Mike Whitaker told Reuters that the FAA is `going through a process to figure out how to restore confidence in these door seals.`
