The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a proposed airworthiness directive that would require “detailed inspections” of seats on 453 Boeing 737 MAX jets registered in the United States, as reported on July 28.
The FAA says it received reports that some cabin seat components were not properly installed in their seat tracks. This means that under increased load, during turbulence, or in an emergency landing, those parts could come loose from the rails.
“If this happens, passengers and crew could get injured during an emergency evacuation, or it might block aisles and slow down the evacuation process,” the FAA warned.
The new quality check requirement covers three MAX models currently operated by major US and international airlines. According to the FAA, the proposed inspections are expected to cost carriers about $2.7 million in total within the US, not including reinstallation fees.
The FAA only has jurisdiction over US-based airlines, but foreign regulators often follow its lead. According to aviation consultancy IBA, there are nearly 2,300 Boeing 737 MAX jets in service globally, with 823 of them in the US.
Boeing has said it welcomes the FAA’s move to make its inspection guidance mandatory for operators, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
This latest quality issue comes less than two weeks after the FAA returned final safety sign-off authority for newly built 737 jets back to Boeing. The FAA had revoked that authority after two deadly MAX crashes in 2019, and only began allowing Boeing to gradually resume issuing some airworthiness certificates last year.
The US company is also nearing final FAA approval for two long-delayed 737 MAX models—the MAX 7 and MAX 10.
Certification for these models has been held back by Boeing’s ongoing crises, including a January 2024 incident where a door plug panel blew off mid-flight on a new Alaska Airlines jet due to improper installation. That event led to temporary groundings of dozens of 737s, and the FAA has proposed a civil penalty of over $3 million.