First 40 inspections of Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplanes completed: US FAA

Alaska Airlines and United Airlines have completed the inspection (Representative image)

The Federal Aviation Administration of US on January 17 said that inspections of an initial group of Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplanes have been completed, after planes went underground following January 5 cabin panel breaking off in mid-flight.

On Friday, the FAA said 40 of the 171 grounded planes needed to be reinspected, then the agency would review the results and determine if it is safe to allow the Boeing MAX 9s to resume flying. The FAA also added that it will "thoroughly review the data" from the inspections before deciding if the planes can resume flights.

Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, the two US airlines that use the aircraft involved and which completed the inspections, have had to cancel hundreds of flights since last week and have canceled all MAX 9 flights through January 17.

One of two door plugs on an Alaska Max 9 blew out shortly after the plane took off from Portland, Oregon on January 5 leaving a hole in the plane. The cabin lost pressure and the plane was forced to descend rapidly and return to Portland for an emergency landing. No serious injuries were reported.

Following the incident, FAA had announced that it plans an investigation into whether the manufacturer failed to make sure a fuselage panel that blew off was safe and manufactured to meet the design that regulators approved.

The National Transportation Safety Board is focusing its investigation on plugs used to fill spots for extra doors when those exits are not required for safety reasons on Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners.

The incident on the Alaska plane is the latest in a string of mishaps for Boeing that began in 2018, with the first of two crashes of Max 8 planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia and more than four months apart that killed a total of 346 people.

Max 8 and Max 9 planes were grounded worldwide for nearly two years after the second crash. Since then, various manufacturing flaws have at times held up deliveries of Max jets and a larger Boeing plane, the 787. Last month, the company asked airlines to inspect their Max jets for a loose bolt in the rudder-control system.

(With agency inputs)