Alaska Airlines grounds it`s 737 MAX9 Aircraft

[angry turnip]

Alaska Airlines has placed a tempory grounding on it`s fleet of 65 Boeing 737 MAX9 aircraft, after one suffered a partial structural failure, which also caused the cabin to depressurise.

More from BBC News site

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67899564

[angry turnip]

The US FAA have stepped in and grounded more Boeing 737 MAX9`s.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67903655

I`ll be honest I will not fly on the 737 MAX series, I don`t think the aircraft are safe.

[angry turnip]

Some more details on this, and the missing piece has been found.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67919436

[JasonT1981]

Not verfy reassuring. United Airlines have found 5 of its Max 9 have loose door bolts in the location of where the door blew of the Alaska Airlines flight and Alaska Airlines have also found loose bolts on "Some" of it's 737 Max 9s

https://news.sky.com/story/loose-hardware-found-on-more-alaska-airlines-737-9-max-9-planes-after-mid-flight-blowout-13044460

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67919436

[keegster]

Guessing this is going to boil down to one of three things:
1. Incompetence - bolts weren't tightened correctly/checked as per design;
2. Ignorance - design wasn't fully tested to see if things like turbulence, landings, etc. could cause the bolts to loosen;
3. Sabotage;

My money is on option 2 as this seems to be a new feature unique to this model of the 737.

Diagram I saw suggested there were 4[?] bolts securing the door plug and yet when the door was found all the bolts were missing.

[Jimi182]

How in this day and age can something like this happen?

Boeing used to be respected etc but they're seriously losing that reputation.

[angry turnip]

The problem seems to be that the aircraft business is so cutthroat,safety is sometimes being compromised, which is nothing short of scandelous.
Remember the big fuss about smoke hoods possibly being made compulsory on passenger aircraft?
The cost involved and extra weight, loads of excuses from aircraft manufacturers were made not to have them, and in the end they won.
Even the brace position-many people believe it was devised so in the event of an accident,passengers spines would shatter their skulls causing instant death. The airlines calculated it was cheaper to compensate for deaths rather than survivors.This may be an urban myth, but I can see the reasons for people being concerned about it.

Boeing actually wanted to build a new aircraft rather than modify the B737 yet again, because they were rapidly losing sales to Airbus, but it was found to be so much cheaper, and faster to re-vamp the B737 for use until 2030, when a new replacement design would be re-evaluated.
They needed the MAX8 in service as quickly as possible to try and claw back some of the market share.
From what I recall the MAX series design also evaded many of the FAA checks, because it was not classed as a new aircraft. Boeing were able to practically self certify the aircraft including it`s fateful MCAS system
Some of this came out after the tragic loss of the two MAX8 aircraft, one in Indonesia ( Lion Air ) and the other in Ethiopia (Ethiopian Airlines).

As we all know the aircraft were grounded for almost two years, despite extremely vocal protests from Boeing, and indeed their were strong rumours that Boeing tried to put pressure on the NTSB investigations into both accidents.

Netflix released Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, a documentary about the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 plane crashes. It`s very alarming, classic case of money over lives.

[JasonT1981]

A United Airlines flight declared an emergancy on Wednesday and landed in Tampa due to a door issue. This time it was an Airbus A319.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/united-airlines-plane-makes-an-emergency-landing-after-a-warning-about-a-possible-door-issue/ar-AA1mPevz?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=cecc19dfe03f4015b85aa4f9ad63cf74&ei=71

[angry turnip]

In fairness this incident isn`t quite the same as the Alaska Airlines MAX9 issue, this was an indiction that the door had not sealed correctly, which could have been anything from a faulty switch/sensor, or something fouling the door seal.

Of course these things need to be checked and rectified, as any door fault could led to an aircraft not pressurising correctly.
Because of the MAX9 incident, the media will be all over anything vaguely similar, that seems to be the way much of the media works nowdays. They are especially tough on aviation related matters.