The dramatic blowout of a section of the fuselage on an Alaska Airlines flight has put the focus back on Boeing’s 737 Max — the US company’s most popular plane and also its biggest source of revenue in its commercial aircraft business.
The latest crisis involves the 737 Max 9, a longer version of the most common model, the Max 8 which was at the centre of a controversy after two crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed a combined 346 people.
About 217 Max 9 aircraft are in operation, according to aviation consultancy Cirium. The Federal Aviation Administration, the US regulator, has grounded 171 of these, including United Airlines’ 79-plane Max 9 fleet.