Alaska plane incident: DGCA asks airlines to conduct inspection of emergency exits of Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft

Inspections will be done during night halt of aircraft concerned, officials say and as a result, there will be no impact on flight schedules

Aviation watchdog DGCA directed domestic airlines to immediately carry out inspection of emergency exits of all Boeing 737-8 Max planes in their fleets. Reuters file

PTI

New Delhi, January 6

Aviation watchdog DGCA on Saturday directed domestic airlines to immediately carry out inspection of emergency exits of all Boeing 737-8 Max planes in their fleets as an “abundant precautionary measure” in the wake of the Alaska Airlines incident.

A senior official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that “one-time emergency exit checks” should mandatorily be carried out by all operators by noon on January 7.

The inspections will be done during the night halt of the aircraft concerned, the official said and as a result, there will be no impact on flight schedules.

Currently, there are more than 40 Boeing 737-8 Max planes that are operated by three domestic carriers -- Akasa Air, SpiceJet and Air India Express.

The directive comes after an Alaska Airlines plane's outer section, including a window, fell off mid-air and the aircraft involved was Boeing 737-9 Max.

Indian carriers do not have Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft in their fleets now. The DGCA official said the latest directive is an abundant precautionary measure.

“DGCA has directed all the 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 official said.

The official also said that pursuant to the Alaska Airlines incident involving Boeing 737 -9 Max aircraft, there have been no inputs or guidance from Boeing so far.

When asked whether flight schedules could be impacted by the inspection, the official replied in the negative. “No, these one-time checks will be done during the night halt of aircraft,” the official said.

In their fleets, Akasa Air has 22 Max planes, SpiceJet has more than 10 such planes and Air India Express has nine such aircraft.

There was no immediate comment from Boeing on the DGCA directive.

“We do not have any 737-9 Max in our fleet. SpiceJet will adhere to the DGCA directive on the Max-8,” a SpiceJet spokesperson said.

An Akasa Air spokesperson said that, at present, the airline does not have any 737-9 Max aircraft in its fleet which was the aircraft type involved in the Alaska Airlines incident.

“Even though the incident has occurred with another airline in the US, we are in contact with the aircraft manufacturer and regulators to proactively monitor developments and will follow any guidance issued by them,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

An Air India Express spokesperson in a statement said the aircraft involved in the Alaska Airlines incident was a different variant from the B737-8 operated by Air India Express.

“We are in touch with Boeing for more information regarding this, as well with our regulators and will comply with any advisory,” the spokesperson said.

In a statement on Saturday, a Boeing spokesperson said it was aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines flight 1282.

“We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer. A Boeing technical team stands ready to support the investigation,” the spokesperson said about the incident that happened on Friday.