NewsWhats happening
- Details
After latest incident, Boeing executives race to reassure airlines as FAA grounds 171 MAX 9 jets
A 737 MAX at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Wash. The line of jets has encountered past troubles. The last thing Boeing needed was more trouble with its 737 MAX jet. That is exactly what it got to start the new year.
The company had just started to regain its footing after years of tumult around the popular but troubled line of narrow-body jets when a MAX 9 operated by Alaska Airlines had a structural failure Friday night.
A panel that plugs an emergency door ripped away at 16,000 feet leaving a gaping hole in a cabin full of passengers. The Federal Aviation Administration responded Saturday by ordering airlines to ground about 171 of the MAX 9 planes and to conduct inspections. The checks take about four hours and, if cleared, planes can return to service.
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said Saturday that its investigation is focused on the Alaska Airlines incident and isn’t looking more broadly at Boeing’s 737 MAX.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article
- Details
A door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines jet midair after moving off a set of stops designed to keep it attached to the plane, investigators said on Monday. United Airlines said it also discovered loose parts on its Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets.
Video from WSJ
Watch the video
- Details
Aircraft was told to go to a holding point two minutes before a Japan Airlines jet collided with it. All 379 people on board a Japan Airlines jet that burst into flames after a collision at a Tokyo airport managed to escape relatively unscathed. Experts explain how air safety advances and the plane’s design helped to ensure their survival.
Japanese authorities investigating a fiery collision at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport are zeroing in on why a coast guard plane was present on the same runway where a Japan Airlines jet had permission to land.
Just moments before Tuesday’s collision, the coast guard plane inched forward onto the runway, but regulators said they haven’t found any record of it being cleared to do so. Its movements placed it in the path of the descending Japan Airlines Flight 516.
The two planes collided on the runway, and the smaller coast guard aircraft exploded, killing five of the six personnel aboard. The Japan Airlines Airbus A350 caught fire and its 379 passengers and crew escaped with just minutes to spare.
A transcript of control-tower communications released by Japanese regulators shows the Japan Coast Guard plane, a De Havilland Canada Dash 8 turboprop, was instructed at 5:45 p.m. to taxi to a holding point called C5 right next to the runway.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article
- Details
Plane maker wants to avoid supply constraints it has suffered on smaller narrow-body model
LONDON—Airbus SE decrease; red down pointing triangle, buoyed by its latest deal to sell wide-bodies to Air India Ltd., is planning to boost production rates of its two biggest models as it tries to capitalize on resurgent demand for long-haul travel, according to people familiar with the matter.
The European plane maker is planning to increase its so-called build rate for both of its currently produced wide-body aircraft, the A350 and the A330neo, according to these people. An announcement could come as early as this week, the people said, cautioning that a decision has yet to be finalized.
Airbus decrease; red down pointing triangle slashed production of its wide-body planes at the onset of the pandemic, when travel restrictions and border closures brought international traffic to a near standstill and airlines were clamoring to cancel and defer aircraft orders.
Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article