On Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the temporary grounding of certain Boeing 737 Max 9 planes operated by U.S. airlines following a mid-air incident during an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland to Southern California that forced an emergency landing.
“The FAA is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement. “Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSB’s investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.”
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There are just more than 200 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes in use worldwide, according to Hassan Shahidi, the president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation.
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“Relatively, it’s a very small part of the entire fleet of thousands of aircraft that are out there,” Shahidi told NBC 7.
Alaska Airlines has around 60 Max 9 planes and United Airlines has 79, making them the largest carrier of the Boeing model in the U.S., according to a statement. Each of those planes will need to be taken out of service and inspected, which was expected to cause cancellations and delays for travelers.
“Certainly there may be some temporary impact with schedules as those airlines try to replace and mitigate the situation by bringing other aircraft into service,” Shahidi said.
However, he added, those temporary impacts are well-worth ensuring the safety of travelers and the airworthiness of the planes.
“The actions on the part of the airlines and the FAA to really make sure that there are no other issues, that they are checking these for any other issues I think that’s the right thing to do,” Shahidi said. “And I think that passengers can really be reassured that those airplanes are going to be safe when they’re back in service."
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