Alaska Airlines has resumed flying Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners since they were grounded after a panel blew out the side of one of the airline’s planes.
The airline said in a statement that it has completed the final inspection of its group of aircraft. They said they resumed flying the Max 9 on Friday afternoon with a flight from Seattle to San Diego.
On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration approved the inspection and maintenance process to get the planes flying again. Technicians in Alaska began inspections that night, the airline said.
The airline said it expects inspections to be completed by the end of next week, allowing the airline to operate a full flight schedule. The inspections are expected to take up to 12 hours by plane.
“Each of our 737-9 MAX will not return to service until rigorous inspections are completed and each aircraft is deemed airworthy under FAA requirements,” the airline said in a written statement Friday.
The first United passenger flight on a Boeing MAX 9 since the panel exploded on the Alaska Airlines flight took off from Newark, New Jersey, for Las Vegas on Saturday morning. The flight carried 175 passengers and six crew members.
Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a message to Boeing employees on Friday that the company’s most immediate goal is to help airlines recover operations.
“Our long-term focus is on improving our quality so that we can regain the trust of our customers, our regulator and the flying public,” he wrote.
“To be honest, we let them down and let them down. “We are deeply sorry for the significant disruption and frustration to our customers, some of whom have been publicly and unfairly criticized,” he added.
The Federal Aviation Administration has detailed the process airlines must follow to inspect — and if necessary repair — the panels called door plugs, one of which broke loose Jan. 5 on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.
The plugs are used to seal holes left for additional doors on the Max 9 when an unusually high number of seats requires more exits for safety reasons.
Alaska Airlines grounded all 65 Max 9 jets within hours after one of two door plugs in the rear half of the cabin of Flight 1282 blew off at an altitude of 16,000 feet (about 4,900 meters) above Oregon. The FAA grounded all Max 9s in the US the day after the eruption.
No passengers were seriously injured.