The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday instructed domestic airlines to promptly conduct inspections of emergency exits on all Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft within their fleets. This directive follows the recent incident involving an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 Max, where the outer section, including a window, detached during the flight. A senior official from DGCA emphasised that this precautionary measure has been taken to ensure safety.
The incident comes just a week after Boeing asked airlines to conduct inspections on 737 MAX airplanes to check for potential issues with a loose bolt in the rudder control system.
Which Indian carriers have Boeing 737 Max 8?
While no Indian carriers operate the Boeing 737-9 Max involved in Saturday's incident, concerns about the safety of all 737 MAX airplanes persist.
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Currently, Air India Express, SpiceJet, and Akasa Air have Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft in their fleets.
Air India Express possesses a fleet of 14 Boeing 737-8 MAX airplanes, SpiceJet operates 13 of these aircraft, and Akasa Air, as the newest carrier in India, has 22 Boeing 737-8 MAX planes.
Following a government directive, these carriers are now required to conduct inspections on all the aircraft in their respective fleets.
Longstanding safety concerns regarding Boeing 737 Max 8
However, this is not the first time when Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft have been grounded by an airline for safety concerns. The narrow-body airplane has often landed Boeing in trouble even in the past. In 2018 and 2019, two Boeing 737 Max 8 jets crashed killing 346 people. The accidents resulted in a nearly two-year worldwide grounding of all Max 8 and Max 9 planes.
Boeing managed to bring back its planes to service only after making changes to an automated flight control system implicated in the crashes. Despite, all these difficulties, the Boeing 737 Max continues to be one of the most successful aeroplane series of the company. Here’s all you need to know about the aircraft.
Previous mishaps with Boeing 737 Max 8
Within a span of less than five months, two different crashes involving Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft resulted in the tragic deaths of 346 individuals. The first crash involved Lion Air in October 2018, followed by the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March 2019. Both incidents involved new aircraft, and initial investigations into these fatal accidents reveal troubling parallels, pointing to issues with the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) or the automated flight control system.
