Boeing said that a new problem with the fuselages of some unfinished 737 jets would force the company to rework about 50 planes, potentially delaying their delivery and raising further concerns about quality at the manufacturer and its suppliers. Stan Deal, the CE of Boeing’s commercial plane unit, said in a memo to employees on Sunday that a supplier last week had identified that “two holes may not have been drilled exactly to our requirements.” Joe Buccino, a spokesman for Spirit AeroSystems, Boeing’s fuselage supplier, said on Monday that a member of its team had identified an issue that did not conform to engineering standards. “Once notified, we began immediate actions to identify and implement appropriate repair solutions,” he said. “We are in close communication with Boeing on this matter.” Deal of Boeing said in his memo that it was “not an immediate flight safety issue.” He added that the 737s currently in use could continue flying. The new problems were another setback for Boeing, which has been under pressure from regulators, investors and its airline customers since Jan. 5, when a panel on a 737 Max 9 jet operated by Alaska Airlines blew out mid-flight, forcing an emergency landing and the grounding of some Max 9s in the United States. Quality concerns at Boeing and its suppliers have taken on new urgency after news accounts, including a report in The New York Times, found that Boeing workers had opened and reinstalled the panel that blew off the Alaska Airlines plane. Last week, Boeing declined to provide a full-year financial forecast as scheduled, an indication that it was trying to assure customers that quality control would take precedence over financial performance. Deal said that Boeing would devote several “factory days” this week at the company’s factory outside Seattle to address the mis-drilled holes and finish other work on the undelivered 737s. Such days allow teams to pause normal work and attend to specific tasks without shutting production. “This is what we mean when we say that we will go slow to get it right,” Deal said in the memo.<br/>
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The US FAA on Monday said two US airlines have inspected and returned to service nearly 94% of Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes following a mid-air emergency last month. The FAA lifted its grounding of MAX 9 airplanes on Jan. 24 after it halted flights following the cabin panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines (ALK.N), opens new tab jet on Jan. 5. The FAA said 78 of 79 United Airlines (UAL.O), opens new tab MAX 9 planes have been inspected and returned to service and 57 of 65 Alaska MAX 9 planes. Alaska said inspections on all but the plane involved in the emergency will be complete by Tuesday. The FAA required inspections include close review of specific bolts, guide tracks and fittings and detailed visual inspections of door plugs and dozens of associated components. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating whether the bolts were missing on the plane that suffered the cabin panel blowout. The grounding forced the airlines to cancel thousands of flights in January. Deputy FAA Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety Jodi Baker told reporters Monday the FAA was reimagining its oversight of Boeing. At Boeing's Renton 737 factory the FAA is "doing a nose to tail, wingtip to wingtip inspection. And as we get findings out of that inspection, we anticipate that will drive our reimagined oversight," she added.<br/>
When a Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed off the coast of Indonesia in 2018, killing all 189 people on board, the FAA allowed other Max planes to keep flying. Less than five months later, in early 2019, another Max 8 crashed in Ethiopia, killing 157 more people. Even then, days passed before the agency halted the planes from flying. In early January, when a door panel blew out of a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet, the FAA responded far more swiftly. Within a day, it had grounded scores of similar Max 9 planes. “That is night and day compared to what happened in 2019,” said William J. McGee, a senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, a research and advocacy group. The agency did not stop with the grounding. Last month, it said it would bar Boeing from increasing production of the 737 Max line until the company addressed quality control issues, a major blow to the plane maker’s ability to ramp up output as it tries to compete with its main rival, Airbus. The regulator also opened an investigation into Boeing’s compliance with safety standards and announced an audit of the Max 9 production line. The FAA’s handling of the latest Boeing crisis will come under the spotlight on Tuesday when the agency’s administrator, Mike Whitaker, testifies before a House subcommittee. Already, the door panel mishap has prompted another wave of questions from Congress about how the nation’s air safety regulator exercises its oversight role. The agency has long relied on plane makers to conduct safety work on the government’s behalf, a practice that came under scrutiny after the Max 8 crashes and is now drawing attention once again. In the case of the incident with the Max 9, one possibility is that Boeing employees improperly reinstalled the door panel, known as a door plug, after it was opened at the plane maker’s factory in Renton, Wash. If a manufacturing lapse is found to have been at fault, the FAA may face criticism over whether it sufficiently monitored Boeing’s production processes. Story has more.<br/>
The head of the US FAA told Congress in a letter on Monday that lawmakers should not raise the mandatory retirement age of airline pilots to 67 from 65, saying it should first be allowed to conduct additional research. "It is crucial to provide the agency an opportunity to conduct research and determine mitigations," FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a letter first reported by Reuters. The US Senate Commerce Committee is eying a potential hearing on Thursday to consider its own version of the aviation bill to extend the authorization of the FAA. "When it comes to raising the pilot retirement age, the FAA has made clear that a scientific and safety analysis must come first. That has not happened," said Senator Maria Cantwell, the committee chair. "Aviation safety is paramount, and now is not the time to take a shortcut." The US House in July voted 351-69 on an aviation reform measure that would hike the mandatory retirement age to 67. "We strongly encourage preceding that type of change with appropriate research so that the FAA can measure any risk," Whitaker added. A separate letter from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to Congress on Jan. 26 said the FAA "currently has no data to support such increase to the retirement age." He warned that raising the age to 67 would be "above the international standard and will have consequences for US air carriers."<br/>