Reuters
(Reuters) — The US Federal Aviation Administration mentioned on Monday that seats on hundreds of Boeing BA.N 737 MAX jets registered within the US may require inspections in case they had been incorrectly put in and wanted to be fastened.
If not, the seats may injure passengers and crew members throughout an emergency touchdown or block the aisle and gradual an evacuation, the company mentioned.
The FAA’s proposed airworthiness directive issued on Monday would apply to 453 jets registered within the US. The company solely has jurisdiction over US airways, however overseas regulators sometimes observe FAA directives if relevant.
The proposed directive comes as Boeing works to enhance its manufacturing high quality and boost output beneath CEO Kelly Ortberg. Production high quality issues had been revealed in early 2024 when a door plug panel blew out of a virtually new Alaska Air 737 MAX in flight.
The FAA mentioned within the airworthiness directive proposal that it acquired a report that some passenger seat assemblies weren’t appropriately put in within the seat tracks.
That meant the assemblies may disengage from the seat tracks if there was an elevated load, turbulence or an emergency touchdown, the FAA mentioned.
“This condition, if not addressed, could result in injury to passengers and crew during an emergency landing or could block the aisle, which could slow evacuation,” it added.
There could possibly be as much as 69 track-mounted passenger seat assemblies on every 737 MAX airplane and the difficulty would take an estimated one work hour to repair every meeting and requires no components to take action, the FAA mentioned.
It didn’t say how shortly airways would need to right the difficulty.
A Boeing spokesperson mentioned the planemaker issued steerage to operators concerning the difficulty in December 2025.
“We support the FAA making that guidance mandatory,” the spokesperson mentioned in an electronic mail.
Reuters up to date this story to mirror that seats may require inspections however may not need to be fastened.
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