US aviation regulator launches formal probe into Boeing’s mid-air blowout

US aviation regulators said on Thursday they were investigating Boeing following a mid-air blowout of a fuselage panel on a 737 Max.

The US Federal Aviation Administration said it would examine whether the products the company built matched the design specifications approved by regulators and whether the jets were in a safe condition to operate.

A door plug — an exit that could not be used and looked like a contiguous piece of the plane’s interior — fell off Alaska Airlines 1282 on Friday as it headed from Oregon towards California. The FAA grounded 171 planes for inspection, and United Airlines and Alaska Airlines later found loose parts on similar door plugs.

“This incident should have never happened, and it cannot happen again,” the agency said. “Boeing’s manufacturing practices need to comply with the high safety standards they’re legally accountable to meet.”

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board probing the incident are already in talks with Boeing and one of its biggest suppliers, Spirit AeroSystems, which built the fuselage and the door plug. 

Boeing said it would “co-operate fully and transparently with the FAA and the NTSB on their investigations”.

Kansas-based Spirit, which was originally spun out of Boeing in 2005, is one of the world’s biggest providers of airframe structures. It produces the fuselage for the Max and fuselage and wing components for the wide-body 787 used for long-haul flights. 

It also builds aerostructures for Airbus jets, including parts for the A350 and A320. It builds the wings for the A220 jet in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Guillaume Faury, Airbus chief executive, said the European aerospace and defence group was “monitoring very closely” what is coming out of the Alaska Airlines investigation. The company “will be taking each and every learning”, he told reporters, adding that “we would expect Spirit to do the same”.

Faury was speaking after Airbus announced it had won a record number of orders last year following a buying spree from airlines while retaining its crown as the world’s largest plane maker ahead of Boeing after delivering 735 aircraft. 

The group said it had received 2,319 gross orders and 2,094 net orders after allowing for cancellations to the end of December last year. 

Large orders earlier in 2023 from Turkish Airlines in December and Asian carriers Air India and IndiGo helped Airbus beat its previous annual order record, set in 2014. Its gross order tally for last year included 1,835 of its best-selling family of A320 single-aisle jets. 

The company delivered 735 aircraft in 2023, higher than its original target of 720 jets and 11 higher than its tally in 2022. Its 2023 year-end backlog stood at 8,598 aircraft.

It marked the fifth year that Airbus retained the crown as the world’s largest plane maker.

Boeing said on Tuesday it had delivered 528 planes in 2023, including 396 of the 737 Max family of jets. 

Kayak makes it easy for concerned travellers to avoid 737 Max flights

The Max total fell within the lowered range that executives laid out in October, but below the 400 to 450 the company had targeted at the start of the year. December included 45 deliveries of the single-aisle jet. Boeing delivered 73 787s last year. The US company has a backlog of orders for 5,626 planes.

In early signs of the incident’s knock-on impact for airlines, Kayak, one of the world’s leading flight search engines, said it had seen a “noticeable difference” in the number of people using its online tools to filter aircraft type to highlight the 737 Max.

The company has made the aircraft filter more prominent in response, and said aircraft choice appeared to be “top of mind for travellers now”.

“Kayak makes it easy for concerned travellers to avoid 737 Max flights,” its chief executive Steve Hafner said.

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on online flight searches.