Loose parts found in Boeing 737 Max door panels, airlines say

Alaska Airlines and United Airlines reported separately that they found loose parts in door panels of some of their Boeing 737 Max 9 jets, which have been were grounded pending inspection after one suffered a midflight emergency Friday evening.

An Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Ore., to Ontario, Calif., suffered a midflight “explosive decompression” when a panel used to plug an unused emergency exit door on the aircraft blew off several minutes after takeoff.

Federal investigators said Monday they are looking at whether four bolts that were supposed to hold the panel in place were missing when the plane took off, The Associated Press reported.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the incident, found the door that had blown off the plane about 16,000 feet above Oregon. The door will be sent to its Washington, D.C,. materials laboratory for further examination.

The NTSB said it examined it examined the intact door plug on the right side of the aircraft and found no discrepancies. Regarding the left door, the agency said it had not determined if the four bolts meant to hold the panel in place were there to begin with, and its lab will look into the issue further.

United Airlines began preliminary inspections into its 737 Max 9 fleet of 79 planes Saturday and has “found instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug — for example, bolts that needed additional tightening,” the airline said. The technical operations team is working to remedy the issue, they added, in order to return the 737 Max 9’s to service in “the days ahead.”

The airline noted it expects significant cancellations since service on the aircraft remains suspended, but it has been able to switch some services to other planes.

Alaska Airlines announced late Friday it would ground all 65 of its 737 Max 9 aircraft after the incident. Initial reports from the airline’s investigation indicated “some loose hardware was visible on some aircraft.”

The Hill has reached out to Alaska Airlines for more information.

The Federal Aviation Administration subsequently grounded 171 of 200 Max 9’s until door plugs can be inspected and fixed, if necessary, the AP reported.

Boeing, which had problems with various planes over the years, pledged to “help address any and all findings” during the investigation.