United Airlines finds loose bolts on door plugs in grounded 737 MAX 9 planes

United Airlines says that they have found loose bolts on door plugs during inspections of Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft.

The door plug of an Alaska Airline flight out of Portland blew out shortly after takeoff last Friday. That led to the grounding of all 737 MAX 9 planes, as well as hundreds of cancelled flights across multiple airlines.

During United’s preliminary inspections of its own MAX 9 fleet, they found “instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug.”

“For example, bolts that needed additional tightening,” United told KIRO 7.

The airline is still waiting on final approval from the Federal Aviation Administration regarding the full inspection process.

In total, United has 79 Boeing 737 MAX 9s in its fleet. Alaska is conducting an investigation into its own fleet as well.

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