An emergency exit door of Alaska Airlines’s B737-9 Max aircraft – which was en route from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California – blew out soon after takeoff, forcing the plane to conduct an emergency landing back in Portland on Friday evening.
Air India Express, SpiceJet, and Akasa Air have B737-8 Max aircraft in their fleet in the country. In total, the three airlines have 43 737 Max aircraft in their fleet. But all of them are of the 737-8 Max variant.
DGCA head Vikram Dev Dutt confirmed saying that the regulator has asked the airlines to complete checks by 7 January. “We are studying the incident closely and have asked airlines to complete the checks on their emergency exit, ” Dutt said.
As the cabin suddenly got depressurised, certain passengers reported their phones were sucked out of their hands and thrown out of the large hole. The aircraft landed safely back at Portland airport with all 171 passengers and six flight crew members.
The DGCA said on Saturday, ‘Following the Alaska Airlines incident involving a Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft, there have been no inputs/guidance from Boeing so far. None of the Indian air operators have Boeing 737-9 Max as part of their fleet yet.”However, as an abundant precautionary measure, the DGCA has directed all Indian air operators to carry out a one-time inspection of the emergency exits immediately on all Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft currently operating as part of their fleet,’ the regulator added. “We do not have any 737-9 Max in our fleet. We will adhere to the DGCA directive on the Max-8, ” a SpiceJet spokesperson said.
An Akasa Air spokesperson said that the airline is in contact with Boeing and regulators to proactively monitor developments and will follow any guidance issued by them adding that Akasa Air does not have any 737 Max-9 aircraft in its fleet
“ For us at Akasa Air, safety is of utmost importance. We pride ourselves in pursuing the highest global standards of safety, ” she said.
DGCA is also simultaneously studying the incident of last week where a Japan Airlines flight arriving from Sapporo erupted into flames on Tuesday after colliding into a Japanese Coast Guard plane used for earthquake relief during landing at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.
DGCA in 2023 conducted 5,745 surveillances which included 4,039 were planned and 1,706 spot checks and night surveillance. The regulator has also imposed Rs 2.75 crore fine for violations by regulated aviation entities which is an increase of 39% versus 2022. In 2022, DGCA imposed financial penalties of Rs 1.9 crore
