The US aviation authority will scrutinize safety procedures at United Airlines after a spate of incidents on its Boeing-made planes, according to a letter sent to company employees.
Boeing has been hit by a series of safety issues, including a near-catastrophic incident in January when a fuselage panel on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 Alaska Airlines jet blew off mid-flight.
United — which owns the largest fleet of 737 MAX 9s, with 79 of the aircraft — has since reported poorly screwed bolts on cap doors and other parts of some of those planes.
The US Federal Aviation Administration is now set to take a closer look at the airline’s safety procedures, United’s vice president of corporate safety said in a letter to employees seen by AFP on Friday.
“Over the next several weeks, we will begin to see more of an FAA presence in our operation as they begin to review some of our work processes, manuals and facilities,” Sasha Johnson wrote in the memo.
“The number of safety-related events in recent weeks have rightfully caused us to pause and evaluate whether there is anything we can and should do differently,” Johnson added.
She said United needed to take an “even closer look at multiple areas of our operation to ensure we are doing all we can to promote and drive safety compliance”.
According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, “last year there were a number of close calls between planes on runways, and the industry is absorbing a massive influx of new employees hired”.
Japan Airlines (JAL) said it would buy 21 wide-body A350-900 and 11 A321 neo narrow-body jets from Airbus, which will provide single-aisle jets to the long-time Boeing customer for the first time. Japan’s second-largest airline also said it would buy 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets. JAL has traditionally been a Boeing customer, although Airbus made its first sale to the airline in 2013 with A350 planes.
“United, which last year became the largest U.S. airline by traffic, has drawn attention following a range of problems on flights,” the business daily added. In late February, United Airlines pilots reported that the rudder pedals of the 737 MAX they were flying were stuck after landing in Newark, New Jersey.
