Alaska, Boeing Promise Better Safety Protocols Moving Forward

In an update, the Seattle-based airline announced their plans to improve their own safety and inspection plans on the ground.

Alaska Promises More Quality Control Oversight over Boeing

The incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 involved a plug door ripping off of a Boeing 737 MAX-9 in-flight. Although there were no deaths and the flight was able to return to Portland International Airport (PDX) safely, the issue created even more questions over the troubled MAX airframe.

In their latest update, Alaska said their executive team met with Boeing leadership to “discuss their quality improvement plans to ensure the delivery of the highest quality aircraft off the production line for Alaska.” As a result, the carrier says they will take more responsibility in auditing future Boeing deliveries.

First, the airline says their quality and audit teams will start “a thorough review of Boeing’s production quality and control systems, including Boeing’s production vendor oversight,” with the goal of improving their own maintenance plans. Next, Alaska plans on having a bigger presence at Boeing’s 737 production line, to “validate work and quality” on future deliveries.

The new scrutiny comes as Boeing promises to bring in outside investigators to determine where quality control failed. NBC News reports the Chicago-based aerospace giant will bring in external auditors to look into their process and those of Spirit AeroSystems, including “more than 50 other points in Spirit’s build process and assessing their build plans against engineering specifications.”

In the meantime, Alaska says they are waiting on additional information from the Federal Aviation Administration on the final inspection and repair protocols for their current 737 MAX-9 fleet. Initially, the airline believes as many as 20 of their aircraft may see preliminary inspections.

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