Topline
In an airworthiness directive filed Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told U.S. airlines to inspect Boeing 737 MAX jets for improperly installed seats that could “disengage” from their tracks in an emergency situation.
A United Airlines Boeing 737-9 MAX takes off at Los Angeles International Airport in March 2024. (Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin)
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Key Facts
The FAA is directing airlines to inspect Boeing 737 MAX commercial jets for improperly installed track-mounted cabin seats that could be dangerous in an emergency landing or severe turbulence, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The FAA’s proposed airworthiness directive filed Monday instructs U.S. airlines to provide a “detailed inspection” of the seat track fittings in 453 Boeing 737-8, 737-9 and 737-8200 jets, representing around one fifth of the more than 2,300 MAX jets in operation.
This translates to more than 80,000 seats requiring inspection, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company.
The FAA estimates up to 69 seats—over a third of seats on each plane—could require reassembly.
The U.S. airlines with the highest number of impacted Boeing 737 MAX jets in their fleets are United Airlines (about 284) and Southwest Airlines (over 260), according to industry data.
Boeing stock is up 5% on Tuesday on the heels of a second-quarter earnings report of smaller losses than the same quarter last year.
Crucial Quote
“There’s not a clear indicator in the [airworthiness directive] which of the fleet of these type series are impacted,” Mike Arnot, spokesperson for Cirium, told Forbes. But as the average number of seats is around 190 per plane, “that’s more than 80,000 seats” to inspect.
Key Background
In its airworthiness directive, the FAA said it had received a report indicating that “certain track-mounted passenger seat assemblies were not correctly installed in the seat tracks” and that incorrectly-installed seats “can disengage from the seat tracks if there is an increased load, turbulence, or emergency landing.”
Boeing’s 737 MAX Problems
Less than two weeks ago, the FAA handed back authority to Boeing to perform final safety signoffs of 737s off the factory line, nearly seven years after the privilege had been revoked following two MAX crashes—Indonesia’s Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302—which resulted in 346 deaths. Those crashes were caused by a flawed automatic flight control software that repeatedly forced the plane’s nose down based on faulty sensor data, leading to a worldwide grounding and mandatory retrofit of the Boeing 737 MAX fleet. “We worked hard to build this trust from the FAA, and we take this responsibility very seriously,” Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said on the company’s quarterly earnings call Tuesday.
Big Number
$2.7 million. That’s how much the FAA estimates the proposed inspections will cost airlines before any re-installation costs, based on an average cost of $85 to reassemble each of roughly 69 seats in 453 planes.
Tangent
Boeing lost $280 million in the second quarter—and likely as much as $2.8 billion overall—on its fixed-price government contract to build two new Air Force One presidential jets, which has been dogged by delays and rising costs.
Further Reading
What Boeing’s Crisis Reveals About Leadership Judgment (Forbes)
Boeing Lost Another $280 Million Last Quarter On Overdue Air Force One (Forbes)
