Crisis at Boeing: will it affect the islands?

 

The first week of 2024 left one of the images of the year; A plane in mid-flight lost part of the fuselage at 5.000 meters above sea level and forced an emergency landing. An event that was reported in various international media and that, far from remaining an anecdote, has meant a serious crisis for the supplier of the accident aircraft.

 

This is Boeing, one of the most recognized historical suppliers and present in practically all the fleets of the main international airlines. It was a plane from this American company that suffered this fuselage loss in mid-flight, specifically, one of its most modern aircraft: the Boeing 737 MAX 9.

 

The investigations after the incident raised alerts about some irregularities in the assembly of the aircraft that could have caused the loss of the fuselage in mid-flight. A big blow for Boeing, but a bigger one would come days later; After inspecting several aircraft of the same model that had the incident with Alaska Airlines, several airlines found loose screws on their Boeing 737 MAX 9. A finding that forced the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to ground more than 200 737 MAX airplanes. 9 on land in the United States.

 

The big question (and the one that concerns us) in this situation is: can this crisis in the aeronautical sector affect the Canary Islands? The answer is short, clear and concise: no. At least directly, since the only airlines that have this type of aircraft are United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Copa Airlines, Turkish Airlines, SCAT Airlines, Lion Air, IcelandAir, FlyDubai, Corendon Dutch Airlines and Air Tanzania. Of them, Corendon is the one that could cause the greatest damage since it connects the archipelago with several destinations in Germany; However, they only have two units of the 737 MAX 9.

 

 

 

 

Indirectly things change, since this crisis has affected Boeing as a whole. In India they ordered a “thorough review” of all Boeing 737 MAX 8 (predecessor of the MAX 9 and one of the most used aircraft worldwide) to rule out anomalies. A review that all aircraft passed satisfactorily.

 

But that's not all, since the same organization that left the MAX 9 on the ground in the United States has now forced the Boeing 737-900ER to be inspected as it has a similar design to the Alaska Airlines aircraft that suffered the incident.

 

As if that were not enough, the Alaska Airlines incident was not the only incident in which a Boeing aircraft has been involved. On January 18, a Boeing 747 from the Atlas Air company had to make an emergency landing in Miami after suffering an engine fire in mid-flight. 

 

In Gran Canaria, a few days ago a Boeing 737 from Eindhoven declared an emergency on board due to a possible fire in the hold, so it was forced to coordinate with the island's controllers to ensure its arrival. From the control tower they cleared traffic on the runway to allow their landing and coordinated the necessary personnel to attend to the passengers and crew. The emergency involved the deployment of a crew of firefighters on the tarmac and the evacuation of all passengers.

 

Although these are incidents that are not related to the Alaska Airlines incident, we must pay attention to the decision made by the European authorities regarding aircraft such as the 737 MAX 8 or the 737-900ER to know the real impact of this Boeing crisis. could have on the islands.

 

The latest information coming from the EU is from January 8 (before it became known that there were loose screws on some 737 MAX 9) confirming that they allow the same model as the one that suffered the loss of the fuselage to fly in European territory.