Boeing’s best-selling aircraft is under close examination due to a number of fuselage issues and a near-miss in January.
An inquiry into the Boeing 737 Max has uncovered manufacturing flaws. These errors involve numerous jets that have not yet been delivered. As a consequence of this, Boeing is delaying the delivery of approximately fifty 737 Max aircraft in order to rectify flaws in the fuselage drilling and to carry out additional inspections. It is the most recent in what seems to be a long line of problems that have occurred during the manufacturing of the 737 Max at Spirit AeroSystems, which is one of the largest suppliers to Boeing.
Spirit Aerosystems was not singled out in the most recent memo that the commercial chief of Boeing, Stan Deal, sent out to his workers. In spite of this, a representative from the supplier announced to Bloomberg on Monday that the company is “aware of the issue and will conduct repairs.” Since approximately the beginning of 2023, when Boeing discovered problems with the fittings that connect the Spirit’s aft fuselage to the vertical tail of the 737 Max, the manufacturer, which is situated in Kansas, has been subjected to a great deal of scrutiny. Just a few months later, Boeing and Spirit discovered a problem with the fastener holes in the aft pressure bulkhead. This bulkhead is in charge of ensuring that the cabin pressure is maintained at cruising altitude.
The Chief Executive Officer of Boeing, Dave Calhoun, informed staff in October that the business had the information it required to address its manufacturing challenges “once and for all.” But it became abundantly evident in January of this year that Boeing had a long and difficult battle ahead of it. As an Alaska Airlines flight took off from Portland International Airport, the door plug of a Boeing 737 Max 9 became detached from the fuselage of the aircraft, causing it to plunge to a height of more than 16,000 feet. Even though there were no injuries as a result of the incident, it was obviously traumatic for the passengers and crew members who were on board, and it did not assist Boeing’s image, which was already in a precarious position.
At this point, it appears that the problem is caused by holes that have been drilled into the fuselage of the 737 Max. According to the memo sent by Deal, an employee at a supplier, which is believed to be Spirit Aerosystems, observed that the holes did not conform to the specifications. There is no additional information that has been made public; nevertheless, it has been reported that Boeing instructed the supplier to suspend shipments until it has correctly met its manufacturing commitments. In the end, the delay will have an impact on the scheduling of Boeing’s production commitments; nevertheless, according to Deal, it will “improve overall quality and stability.”
These kinds of advancements have been a long time coming. The reputation of the aerospace business has been plagued for a number of years by concerns regarding the general airworthiness of the 737 Max line of aircraft, despite the fact that Spirit Aerosystems was at the center of Boeing’s manufacturing problems beginning in 2023. At the time of the sad incident that occurred on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019, the Boeing 737 Max was grounded in a number of nations, including the United States. In the months that followed, issues were discovered with the flight controls, anti-stall system, and overall architecture of the Boeing 737 Max. Because the list of safety problems for the line is so extensive, the CEO of Emirates Airline has observed a “progressive decline” in the standards that Boeing has set.