Boeing faces further setbacks in 737 Max deliveries to China following cabin panel blowout

Boeing is encountering fresh challenges in the resumption of deliveries for its 737 Max jets to China after a recent incident involving an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

China Southern Airlines, which had anticipated receiving planes in January, is now set to conduct additional safety inspections on the aircraft, according to sources familiar with the matter cited in the report.

In response to the mid-air blowout of a cabin panel on an Alaska Airlines MAX 9 earlier this month, Boeing is implementing additional quality inspections for the 737 MAX. Stan Deal, the president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, announced on Monday that a team will be deployed to supplier Spirit AeroSystems, responsible for making and installing the door plug implicated in the incident. The team will review and approve Spirit's work before fuselages are sent to Boeing's production facilities in Washington state.

Boeing's actions come after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) extended the grounding of 171 MAX 9 planes indefinitely for new safety checks. The FAA stated that only after inspecting 40 planes would it review the results to determine if the MAX 9s could resume flying.

In addition to door plug inspections, Boeing teams will check 50 other points in Spirit's production process. Both Boeing and Spirit will open their 737 production facilities to airline customers for independent inspections. Boeing plans to conduct employee sessions on quality management and enlist an outside party for an independent assessment of its production process.

The FAA announced last week that it would audit the Boeing 737 MAX 9 production line and suppliers, considering the possibility of having an independent entity take over certain aircraft certification responsibilities previously assigned to Boeing.

Boeing, acknowledging the need for increased scrutiny, revealed plans to boost its number of quality inspectors by 20% since 2019 and make additional investments in its quality units.