FAA Flags 31,000 Improperly Installed Seats On Boeing 737 MAX Planes - Forbes

What the report says

Forbes reported that the Federal Aviation Administration has proposed an airworthiness directive requiring U.S. airlines to inspect Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for passenger seats that may have been installed incorrectly. The directive, filed Monday, concerns track-mounted cabin seats on 453 Boeing 737-8, 737-9 and 737-8200 jets. The FAA said it received a report that some seat assemblies were not properly fitted to the tracks, creating a risk that seats could detach under higher loads such as severe turbulence or an emergency landing.

According to Forbes, the affected aircraft represent about one fifth of the more than 2,300 MAX jets in service worldwide. Aviation analytics firm Cirium estimated that more than 80,000 seats may need inspection, while the FAA estimated that as many as 69 seats per aircraft could require reassembly—roughly 31,000 seats across the 453 planes. Forbes cited industry data showing United Airlines and Southwest Airlines as the U.S. carriers with the largest MAX fleets potentially affected.

The FAA estimated the inspection work would cost airlines about $2.7 million before any seat reinstallation costs, with reassembly priced at an average of $85 per seat. Forbes also noted that Boeing shares were higher Tuesday after the company reported a smaller quarterly loss than a year earlier.

The development comes amid continuing scrutiny of Boeing’s safety oversight. Forbes reported that, less than two weeks earlier, the FAA restored Boeing’s authority to conduct final safety signoffs for 737 aircraft leaving the factory, a power curtailed after the 2018 and 2019 MAX crashes that killed 346 people and led to a global grounding of the model.