The Federal Aviation Administration appears ready to greenlight the Boeing 737 MAX 9 for a return to the air, but halted production of an expansion of the rest of the 737 family of planes, according to Reuters.
The news comes nearly three weeks after the January 5 incident, in which loose bowls were apparently the cause of a panel that blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight.
“Let me be clear: This won’t be back to business as usual for Boeing,” said FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker in a statement Wednesday. “We will not agree to any request from Boeing for an expansion in production or approve additional production lines for the 737 MAX until we are satisfied that the quality control issues uncovered during this process are resolved.”
Boeing said it would comply.
“We will continue to cooperate fully and transparently with the FAA and follow their direction as we take action to strengthen safety and quality at Boeing,” the company said in a statement.
In the meantime, the CEO of Alaska Airlines, Ben Minicucci, remains frustrated with Boeing’s operational issues and took the airline manufacturer to task.
“I’m more than frustrated and disappointed,” he told NBC News. “I am angry. This happened to Alaska Airlines. It happened to our guests and happened to our people. And — my demand on Boeing is what are they going to do to improve their quality programs in-house.”
Alaska Airlines sent its own investigators to Boeing and found more loose bolts on 737 series airplanes.
The FAA also said it approved inspection instructions for the Max 9 aircraft. Airlines had been awaiting that approval to review their fleets to return the planes to service. Alaska said it would resume 737 Max 9 flights on Friday “with more planes added daily as inspections are completed and each aircraft is deemed airworthy.”
Alaska and United Airlines are the only domestic carriers that utilize that type of plane and have had to cancel hundreds of flights over the last three weeks.
United will return the planes to service beginning on Sunday, according to a message to employees from Chief Operating Officer Toby Enqvist.
“In the days ahead, our teams will continue to proceed in a way that is thorough and puts safety and compliance first,” Enqvist wrote.
The FAA recently completed inspections of the first 40 of more than 170 planes.
