Ten days after a panel broke off a Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft midflight, the plane maker said Monday it is taking immediate actions to improve quality.
In a message to employees, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Stan Deal said his team has been helping the airlines that use its Max 9 to inspect their planes and is stepping up quality practices in its factories.
“We have taken important steps in recent years to strengthen our Quality Management System foundation and its layers of protection,” Deal said. “But the AS1282 accident and recent customer findings make clear that we are not where we need to be.”
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all Max-9 planes following the emergency landing of an Alaska Airlines flight that experienced a midair blowout over Oregon. United Airlines, which operates the world’s largest fleet of Max-9 aircraft, reported last week that it had found loose bolts on some of its fleet.
In response, the Federal Aviation Administration said last week it is increasing oversight of Boeing’s production and manufacturing. It also launched an investigation into the company to determine if it failed to ensure completed products conformed to their approved design and were safe to fly.
Boeing said Monday that its work with the handful of airlines that use the Max 9 planes includes “examining and collecting measurements around the mid-exit door plugs to ensure they are installed per specifications.”
In addition, Boeing plans to increase inspections throughout its build process as its factory in Washington state as well as its main supplier — Spirit AeroSystems in Kansas, which reportedly builds 70% of the Max 9 before shipping it for final assembly at the Boeing plant.
“These checks will provide one more layer of scrutiny on top of the thousands of inspections performed today across each 737 airplane and build on the reviews we have implemented to catch potential non-conformances,” Deal wrote in his memo to staff.
He said the company’s commercial airplane division has already increased its staff of quality inspectors by 20% since 2019 and plans to invest more to improve quality, including more training for workers.
Boeing has dispatched an oversight group to Spirit to inspect its installation of the mid-exit door plug that blew out midair on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 with 171 passengers and six crew on board. Spirit assembles the Max 9 fuselage for Boeing, which said it is also inspecting over 50 other points of its supplier’s build process to make sure it’s according to spec.
The airplane maker is also allowing the airlines that use the Max 9 to visit its Boeing and Spirit assembly lines to conduct their own inspections as the planes are being built. More than 210 Max 9s are in operation globally, including Alaska Airlines (which has 65 in its fleet), United Airlines (which has 79), Aeromexico, Copa Airlines, FlyDubai, Icelandair and Turkish Airlines.
Deal said Boeing will also bring in a third party to review its quality management system and suggest improvements.
“These actions are separate from the FAA’s investigation and the agency’s plan to increase oversight of 737-9 production,” Deal’s memo said. “We will cooperate fully and transparently with both as we work to restore trust with our regulator and our customers. And as the National transportation Safety Board’s investigation proceeds, we will take additional steps to improve our practices as the facts and findings dictate.”