A mid-air mishap in which a piece of the fuselage fell off a Boeing 737 MAX 9 airliner as it traveled over the US West Coast has delivered the manufacturer a further setback. However, the ramifications for Boeing are believed to be minor.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of 171 planes of that model on Saturday so that they could be inspected. That directive came after a frightening occurrence on Friday, when an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 carrying 177 people was forced to make an emergency landing when a sealed-over door panel ripped off during a trip from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California.
Breathtaking video footage of the incident, which showed a big hole in the side of the jet, air flowing through the cabin, oxygen masks dangling, and passengers looking out through the opening at city lights below, were seen around the world. However, no one was seriously hurt.
The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating what happened on that trip, in which a mid-cabin door plug a cover panel meant to fill a superfluous emergency exit in planes with smaller seat layouts — broke off during flight.
The worst crashes since Boeing started its operations were two 737 MAX planes in October 2018 and March 2019, which killed 346 people in total.
These incidents, which were linked to software in a flight stabilization system known as the MCAS, resulted in the grounding of all 737 MAX planes for nearly two years.
However, Boeing had other problems as well, suspending delivery of the long-haul 787 many times over the course of two years due to manufacturing and inspection faults.
Read Also: Kenya Airways Explains Why Its Plane Headed To Dubai Was Forced To Return To JKIA Mid-Air
