WASHINGTON: The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recommended airlines operating Boeing 737-900ER jets inspect door plugs to ensure they are properly secured after some operators reported unspecified issues with bolts upon inspections.
The recommendation issued late on Sunday follows the FAA's grounding of 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes after the January 5 mid-air cabin blowout of a door plug on an eight-week-old Alaska Airlines MAX 9 jet.
In its new "Safety Alert for Operators", the FAA said that some airlines had conducted additional inspections on the 737-900ER mid-exit door plugs and had noted "findings with bolts during the maintenance inspections".
It recommended carriers perform key portions of a fuselage plug assembly maintenance procedure related to the four bolts used to secure the door plug to the airframe "as soon as possible".
A Boeing spokesperson said: "We fully support the FAA and our customers in this action."
Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, the only two US carriers that use the MAX 9, this month said they had found loose parts on multiple grounded MAX 9 aircraft during preliminary checks.
The FAA said that MAX 9 planes will remain grounded until it "is satisfied they are safe to return to service".
In contrast to the MAX 9 that experienced the door-plug issue - a new plane with a low number of flights - Boeing 737-900ER aircraft have more than 11 million hours of operation and 3.9 million flight cycles. The FAA said the door plug "has not been an issue with this model".
Both United and Alaska said they had begun inspections of the door plugs on their 737-900ER fleets.
Globally, the three US carriers operate the vast majority of the 737-900ERs with the door plugs.
On Wednesday the FAA said inspections of an initial group of 40 Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets had been completed, a key hurdle to ending the grounding of the model. The FAA is continuing to review data from those inspections before deciding when the planes can resume flights.
FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said that this month that the FAA was "going through a process to work out how to restore confidence in the integrity of these plug doors".
National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy last week said that the investigative agency would be looking at numerous records related to the door plug. — Reuters
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