The process of inspecting some passenger planes manufactured by the US-based Boeing Corporation is facing procedural difficulties, as investigators have yet to find the control panel that caused the fuselage of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 to explode in mid-air last week, Reuters reported.
Specifically, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over the weekend ordered a temporary grounding of 171 Boeing aircraft equipped with control panels similar to the crashed plane. The FAA initially said the mandatory inspections would last between four and eight hours, leading many in the industry to assume that the planes could quickly return to service.
The failure to find the control panel has hampered the process. The testing criteria have not yet been agreed upon between the FAA and Boeing, meaning airlines have yet to receive detailed instructions.
Alaska Airlines plane fuselage exploded on January 6.
Under the procedure, the FAA must approve Boeing's inspection criteria before completing the investigation, and then flights can resume.
Boeing declined to comment on whether it had submitted its testing criteria to the FAA.
On January 5, a plane taking off from Portland, Oregon, USA, en route to Ontario, California, suddenly exploded, forcing the pilot to land. Fortunately, all 171 passengers and 6 crew members on board were safe.
Plane explodes in mid-air, US temporarily suspends 171 737 MAX 9s
The missing console is believed to have crashed somewhere in the western suburbs of Portland, but has not yet been found. Authorities have asked the public to help search for it.
Alaska Airlines, which operates the plane that exploded, canceled 170 flights on January 7. Nearly 25,000 customers were affected, but the disruption is expected to last until at least the middle of this week. Meanwhile, United Airlines canceled 230 flights on the same day, equivalent to 8% of its scheduled departures.
Turkish Airlines is also suspending flights of five Boeing MAX 9s in its fleet and told CNN it is conducting "precautionary checks" on the planes.
Panama's Copa Airlines and Mexico's Aeromexico have also taken similar steps. Copa Airlines said it has grounded 21 MAX 9 aircraft in accordance with the FAA's directive, while its safety team is working to minimize the impact on passengers.
In 2019, global regulators grounded all Boeing MAX aircraft for 20 months, following crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia linked to faulty cockpit software that killed a total of 346 people.
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