Grapevine

Boeing to change design to prevent future 737 MAX 9 door panel blowouts

Boeing is working on design changes ‘that will allow the door plug to not be closed’ until it’s firmly secured, it said.

Boeing has said it plans to make design changes to prevent a future midair cabin panel blowout like the one in an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 flight in January which spun the plane-maker into its second major crisis in recent years.

Boeing’s senior vice president for quality, Elizabeth Lund, said on Tuesday the plane-maker is working on design changes that it hopes to implement within the year and then retrofit across the fleet.

Investigators have said the plug in the new Alaska MAX 9 was missing four key bolts.

“They are working on some design changes that will allow the door plug to not be closed if there’s any issue until it’s firmly secured,” Lund said during the first of a two-day National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigative hearing in Washington, DC.