Michael Whitaker, a nominee to be the next administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), testifies during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Capitol Hill, October 4, 2023 in Washington, DC. The FAA has not had a Senate-confirmed administrator for 18 months. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration has “boots on the ground” at the Boeing 737 Max factory — and will keep them there until the agency is satisfied the manufacturer’s quality control system is working, FAA Administrator Mike Whittaker told CNBC.
The FAA earlier in January said it would inspect Boeing’s Max production line after a door plug on a nearly brand-new Boeing 737 Max 9 exploded in Alaska Airlines flight at 16,000 feet, exposing passengers to a force so strong it sucked into seat backs and head restraints, according to federal investigators.
No one was seriously injured on the flight and no one was seated next to the hole left by the explosion. The FAA grounded that model of Boeing’s best-selling 737 Max a day after the crash and later said it would increase oversight of the company’s production lines.
“We have a lot of inspectors on the ground, visually inspecting the aircraft as it goes through,” Whittaker said Tuesday in an interview at FAA headquarters. “We’re shifting from more of an audit approach to a direct inspection approach.”
The scale of such a review is a challenge, Whitaker said, citing the manpower required to conduct so many inspections. The FAA sent a “couple dozen” inspectors, he said.
“Until we feel comfortable that the [quality assurance] the system is working properly… we will have boots on the ground,” he said.
Both Alaska and united airlines said they found loose bolts on several Max 9 planes during preliminary checks.
Return to service
The FAA is working with Boeing and the airlines on inspection guidelines that will pave the way for the 737 Max 9 to return to service. Whitaker, three months into the FAA’s top job, declined to comment on when he expected the planes to return to service.
“It was hard to predict, so we’ve stopped trying,” he said. “But once we get it sorted, it will happen again.”
In this photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board, Principal Investigator John Lovell examines the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in Portland, Oregon, on Jan. 7, 2024.
National Transportation Safety Board via AP
Although security inspections were carried out originally estimated to take between four and eight hours per plane, Whitaker said “it was longer than that”.
“We required a lot of measurements,” he said. “Once the area is exposed, we want to understand the bolt tensions and gaps and things of that nature. So we needed more data than we normally would because we really wanted to understand the issue.”
United, which has 79 Boeing 737 Max 9s in its fleet, more than any other carrier, said on Monday it assumed the planes would remain grounded until the end of January. As a result, the carrier expects an adjusted loss of up to 85 cents per share this quarter.
United CEO Scott Kirby on Tuesday expressed frustration with Boeing and its repeated production issues and delays. He said United is pulling the largest version, the 737 Max 10, from its fleet plans because of long delivery delays. The FAA has not yet certified this plane, nor has it certified the 737 Max 7, a smaller model that Southwest Airlines waits.
Boeing control
The accident on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 is the latest and most serious in a series of apparent manufacturing flaws at Boeing, which is trying to clean up a quality reputation tarnished by two fatal crashes about five months apart. Those accidents involved the 737 Max 8, a smaller variant of the same family of aircraft. A global grounding of both the Max 8 and the Max 9 started going up about four years ago.
Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci told NBC News on Tuesday that the plug explosion was “unacceptable from the factory” and that the carrier is adding additional staff to oversee the production line to make sure there is “a second line look these critical areas”.
On Tuesday, Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing’s largest commercial airplane unit, apologized for delays in delivering its planes to customers.
“We have disappointed our airline customers and deeply regret the significant disruption to them, their employees and passengers,” it said in a written statement. “We are taking action on a comprehensive plan to bring these planes back safely and improve quality and delivery performance.”
Boeing plans to stop work on several production lines for safety sessions for factory workers to “evaluate what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and make recommendations for improvement,” Deal told staff Tuesday. Sessions begin Thursday at the 737 factory in Renton, Washington.
This photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the door plug from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, in Portland, Ore.
National Transportation Safety Board via AP
Boeing announced on January 16 the appointment of a independent counsel to lead the review of the Max 9 problem.
Asked whether the Max 9 crisis will mean more permanent change in how the FAA, which certifies Boeing’s planes, oversees the company, Whitaker said the agency is “looking at all options.”
“If there are functions that Boeing hasn’t done right, I think we’ll look at whether we should take over some of those functions or whether there’s an opportunity for a third party, a non-profit technical organization, to provide a fresh look,” he said. .
“There’s no reason to think they can’t get back to a point where they’re meeting their quality standards and an increasing production,” Whitaker said. “But right now, we have to be sure about it.”