Boeing Co (NYSE:BA, ETR:BCO)’s problems continue to mount with reports overnight of a front wheel falling off a plane at Atlanta airport, while the chief executive of Alaska Airlines slammed the plane maker's production processes.
Alaska Airlines currently has all its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 9s grounded after a door panel blew off one of its flights on 5 January.
Ben Minicucci, the chief executive of Alaska Airlines' parent company Alaska Air Group (NYSE:ALK), told a US TV station yesterday that internal inspections of its planes had found “many” loose bolts.
"My demand on Boeing is what are they going to do to improve their quality programmes in-house," he said adding he was "incredulous" that such an incident could have occurred.
"It's clear to me that we received an aeroplane from Boeing with a faulty door.
“Now the NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board] investigation is going to figure out why that was a faulty door, whether it was bad installation, missing hardware, a manufacturing issue, but there's no doubt that Alaska received an aeroplane off the production line with a faulty door," he said.
No date has been set by the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) for when all 171 grounded MAX 9s can return to service.
Alaska has already cancelled hundreds of flights as a result.
United Airlines, which with Alaska is the largest user of Max 9s, warned yesterday that its losses this quarter would be higher than expected due to the disruption.
In Atlanta, reports said the wheel that fell off came from a 757 preparing to take off from Hartsfield-Jackson airport.
According to the New York Times, the front wheel just dropped off and “rolled down a hill”.
Boeing has yet to make any comment about the incident.