Boeing is planning additional inspections for its 737 Max planes following a terrifying midair incident earlier this month in which a door plug fell off a Max 9, forcing an Alaska Airlines flight to make an emergency landing.
In an email Monday to employees, Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing’s commercial airplanes division, pledged to bring in an outside party to assess the manufacturer’s quality management system and to provide more inspections at Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, which installs the door plug that was involved in the incident.
No one was seriously hurt after the door panel detached Jan. 5 aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which landed safely in Portland, Oregon, shortly afterward. The Federal Aviation Administration has since grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 airplanes equipped with the door plugs for safety inspections.
Boeing has taken steps in recent years to improve its “layers of protection,” Deal wrote in Monday’s email. “But, the AS1282 accident and recent customer findings make clear that we are not where we need to be.”