KUALA LUMPUR – The latest safety concerns involving a Boeing plane where an engine cover on a Southwest Airlines flight fell off during take-off was the result of a maintenance issue by the airline, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has said.
NSTB chairperson Jennifer Homendy said Southwest was addressing the matter after the board’s assessment of the plane found it to be “a maintenance issue”, Reuters reported her saying.
The agency had sent a structural engineer to assess the plane, after which the NTSB decided not to open a formal investigation, she added.
The plane that took off from Denver, Colorado, last Sunday when an engine cowling fell off and struck the wing flap, had undergone maintenance work the night before its departure.
Homendy said the loss of the engine cowling was attributed to “failure to latch the fan cowl doors”.
“There may be some issues with how they (Southwest) latch to see whether they can tell if they’re locked or not. So they’re going through those procedures now,” she said.
The Southwest flight was bound for Houston, Texas, with 135 passengers and six crew members.
It had taken off at 8.15am local time to an elevation of about 3,140m before returning to the Denver airport 25 minutes later after the incident. No one was injured.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is understood to be still investigating the incident.
Boeing and the airline industry have been in the spotlight since January of this year, when an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 made an emergency landing at Portland, Oregon, after a door panel detached in mid-air at 16,000ft.
In the aftermath of that incident, the FAA grounded the Boeing 737 MAX 9 for several weeks, barring Boeing from increasing its MAX production rate, and mandated the development of a comprehensive plan to address “systemic quality-control issues” within 90 days. – April 11, 2024