Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci has expressed his frustration and disappointment at Boeing in the wake of the explosive decompression of Flight 1282, adding that Alaska teams have found “many” loose bolts during inspections of the airline's grounded 737 MAX-9 aircraft.
Speaking exclusively to senior correspondent Tom Costello of NBC News, Minicucci elaborated: “It makes you mad that we’re finding issues like that on brand new airplanes,” adding that “Boeing is better than this – flight 1282 should never have happened”.
Alaska Airlines is the second single largest operator of the affected configuration of MAX-9, which remains grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Alaska operates 65 and United Airlines operates 79 examples of the type.
In a statement on the manufacturer’s website, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes Stan Deal apologised for the ongoing issues. “We have let down our airline customers and are deeply sorry for the significant disruption to them, their employees and their passengers,” he highlighted, adding that Boeing are “taking action on a comprehensive plan to bring these airplanes safely back to service”.
Boeing’s 737 factory teams in Renton, Washington teams have an upcoming ‘Quality Stand Down’ day planned for this week, allowing “all teammates who touch the airplane” to “participate in hands-on learning, reflection and collaboration to identify where quality and compliance can be improved”. A number of such days are planned across multiple facilities.