Boeing plans to ramp up 737 Max production quality inspections

Boeing has announced that it will implement more quality inspections for its 737 Max aircraft following an incident where an unused door blew off an Alaska Airlines plane during a flight. The company stated that an external party will be brought in to assess its production practices and will also examine the work of the supplier responsible for the parts involved in the accident. The grounding of 737 Max aircraft with similar fuselage panels has been extended by the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which also plans to conduct an audit of the plane's production line. Boeing's commercial airplanes president and CEO, Stan Deal, acknowledged that the company is not currently in an ideal position. Boeing has been working with the five affected airlines to enhance quality control in 737 production. Additionally, a team will be deployed to scrutinize the work of Spirit AeroSystems, the company that supplies and installs the parts involved in the incident. Mr. Deal stated that these extra inspections will add another layer of scrutiny to the thousands of inspections already carried out on each 737 airplane. The blowout incident on the Alaska Airlines flight has further intensified scrutiny of Boeing, as the company has been grappling with restoring public trust following the deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019 involving a different plane in the 737 Max series. Those crashes led to the global grounding of the popular 737 Max planes for over 18 months, with the poor design of a flight control system component and inadequate oversight by the FAA being identified as contributing factors.