A directive to ground almost 200 near-new planes in the United States is not set to affect Australian skies – for now at least.
On Saturday, 171 of Boeing’s 737 Max 9 planes were grounded after a door panel blew out shortly after a flight in the US took off. In response, the US’s Federal Aviation Administration ordered inspections of the component that blew out of an Alaskan Airlines plane on Friday, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing back at Portland airport minutes after it departed.
While no one was seriously injured in the incident, there are now safety questions about the plane and implications for similar models of what has become one of the most controversial generations of aircraft in modern commercial aviation.
Just hours after the incident, budget Australian carrier Bonza released a statement seeking to distance itself from the saga – despite not even operating the Max 9. “We have received assurance from Boeing that there is no impact to our fleet,” a Bonza spokesperson said.
So why is the global aviation community so on edge from this incident, and how could it impact Australia?
What went wrong?
The US’s National Transportation Safety Board is still examining why the door panel in the middle of the plane’s fuselage blew out, leaving a hole “the size of a refrigerator” in the side of the plane. The force of decompression in the plane was so strong it blew open the cockpit door, Reuters reported, citing a person briefed on the investigation.
The Alaskan Airlines plane – which had been delivered just weeks earlier – was configured with fewer seats, meaning it required fewer emergency exits. As such, the mid-cabin exit was plugged with the panel that would ultimately blow out.
Only Max 9s with the same configuration have been grounded for inspections, in the US and Europe. While carriers such as Alaskan Airlines and United Airlines have suffered flight disruptions as their aircraft are checked (inspections take four to eight hours), the plane could return to full service relatively soon if no further issues are detected.
Separately, investigations of the incident are expected to examine two factories involved in the plane’s construction and assembly for potential flaws in design, manufacturing and installation, according to sources cited by Reuters.
Do any airlines fly the Max 9 in Australia?
No. There aren’t any Australian airlines that have taken delivery of a Max 9 aircraft, nor do any international carriers fly the single-aisle plane designed for short- and medium-haul flights on Australian routes.
Virgin Australia and Bonza currently operate the Max 8 aircraft – a slightly shorter version of the Max 9 – but as yet there are no directives that affect this model as it doesn’t feature the door plug in question.
So this won’t have any impact in Australia?
For now, airlines and Australia’s regulator, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Casa), are watching developments overseas to see if the issue is isolated to just the Alaskan plane or the broader Max 9 model with the same door plug.
If investigators find an issue with the door component in question, it could have implications for Virgin Australia, which has 25 Max 10s (an even longer version of the aircraft) on order and due for delivery from next year.
If broader concerns are flagged and regulators in the US and other countries take further action against Max 9s or other aircraft in the Max fleet, Casa would likely follow.
In 2019, after two fatal crashes involving the Boeing Max 8 within months, Casa followed foreign regulators in banning the planes from Australia despite no local airlines operating them at the time.
Why is this one incident getting so much attention?
Not only are incidents like these rare in aviation, Boeing’s 737 Max generation of aircraft has been steeped in controversy since it first took to the skies commercially in 2017.
After the two fatal Max 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019, all Max aircraft were grounded globally for almost two years while company engineers worked to identify and resolve the issue.
The Max is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a plane first flown commercially in 1968. Designed to compete with the Airbus A320Neo, the Max was seen as a modern update to bring a more fuel-efficient model to the 737 family while largely retaining the decades-old structure of the plane.
This approach appealed to airlines because pilots who already flew the 737 wouldn’t have to retrain to operate a Max. Boeing achieved the greater fuel efficiency in part due to heavier engines.
However, crash investigators identified faults in the sensors and new flight control software to compensate for the heavier engines needed for the Max – software that had not been explained to pilots – as causing the planes to override pilots and plunge from the sky.
Boeing was hit with US$2.5bn in fines and compensation, and is estimated to have lost tens of billions more in lost orders for planes. Casa has since deemed the Max 8 safe for operation in Australia.
More recently, in December 2023, Boeing asked airlines to inspect its 737 Max jets for a potential loose bolt in the rudder control system.
As a result of Friday’s incident, there are now fresh concerns of further design issues with the Max.
