KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — Over the weekend, the aviation industry saw the second big incident, as a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane, operated by Alaska Airlines, saw a part of the fuselage detach from it during takeoff. The plane safely landed with no fatalities reported.

What happened to the Alaska Airlines flight?

After the plane made the emergency landing, it was discovered that a plugged door, which was not activated in the Alaska Airlines plane, blew out from the fuselage. On other airlines, the same panel is an exit door.

Because of the incident, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) made a directive to ground all 737 Max 9 planes in the US. The transport agency released an Emergency Airworthiness Directive (EAD) that temporarily ordered all the planes to be grounded, and had all operators inspect them before they could return to flight. The EAD is affecting 171 planes around the world.

Airlines like United Airlines and Turkish Airlines are also affected as they have the plane in question in their fleet.

Does it affect airlines in Malaysia?

The grounding of the 737 Max 9 type in the USA does not affect airlines in Malaysia. Currently, two airlines fly the 737 series of planes in Malaysia — Malaysia Airlines and Batik Air. The two airlines do not deploy the 737-9 aircraft in their fleets.

The model the two Malaysian companies fly is the 737 Max 8, or also known as the 737-8. The model does not feature the affected fuselage part as it is shorter than the larger model and does not require the additional exit door in its overall design.

As of today, no airlines are operating the 737-9 for flights into and from Malaysia.

How about the recent CAAM safety directive?

The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) recently issued a safety directive for airlines operating the 737-8 to check their planes due to "Potential loose or missing fastener on Boeing 737-8 (max) rudder control system.” This is on the back of the FAA’s directive to operators of the 737-8 as an unnamed international airline discovered a missing nut in the plane’s rudder control system.

Operators have been given until January 10 to perform the safety checks on their airplanes. The international airline detected the missing nut in the rudder-control linkage during a routine maintenance. No incidents have been linked to the missing nut as of now, and transport authorities worldwide are monitoring for any problems involving the problem.

The Boeing 737 is one of the most popular air frames in the world, with over 11,000 frames built since the first model was introduced in 1967. The 737 Max 9 is the model’s fourth generation, with the first unit entering service with Thai Lion Air in 2019. The Max family has over 5,000 units on order, with over 1,300 units delivered so far. — SoyaCincau