Boeing door disaster leaves EU airlines unaffected

BRUSSELS — A fully functional emergency door is saving European airlines from the grounding order that has so far affected 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft after an Alaska Airlines airplane blew a hole in its fuselage where a plug had replaced the emergency door.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily grounded 171 MAX 9s worldwide “pending the inspections necessary to ensure that they are safe to operate,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

On Sunday, the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) adopted the FAA’s order to ground MAX 9s with the “specific configuration” of the Alaska Airlines plane but added in a statement that “no airline in an EASA member state currently operates an aircraft in the relevant configuration.”

The two European airlines operating MAX 9s — Corendon Dutch Airlines and Icelandair — left the door activated, and so were unaffected by the grounding order.

However, Turkish Airlines “requested a precautionary examination of the five Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft in its fleet as a result of preliminary investigation of the authorities,” said company spokesperson Yahya Üstün in an emailed statement. The carrier subsequently “decided to withdraw the [aircraft] … from operation at the first airport they land at.”

The close call on the Alaska Airlines MAX 9 happened about 10 minutes after takeoff last Friday; the blowout tore a hole in the fuselage causing a rapid decompression and forcing the crew to make an emergency landing.

No one was sitting next to the faulty door — which was later found in a Portland backyard — and the pilots were able to land the plane with no passengers harmed.

The emergency door involved in the incident — which is located between the wings and the rear door — can be disabled by the airline and plugged if the aircraft carries fewer than 200 passengers per flight.

Alaska Airlines chose to plug the door on its entire MAX 9 fleet, limiting the capacity to 178 seats. In the case of the plane in question, it’s still not known why the plug replacement separated from the fuselage.

The grounded aircraft do not represent all MAX 9s operating in the U.S., but only those flying with a plug instead of the emergency door between the wings and the rear door.