Boeing 737 Max dangerous: History of aircraft, has it been involved in other crashes, is it safe - does Ryanair use these planes?

The safety of Boeing aircraft is under scrutiny after a window on a 737 Max 9 plane blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after take-off. The incident occurred on Friday (5 January) when the flight from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, reached 16,000ft (4,876m).

A window blew out with one passenger describing that the gap was "as wide as a refrigerator" while another said a child's shirt was ripped off in the wind. The plane had to make an emergency landing. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered the grounding of Max 9 planes as they require immediate inspections. Its emergency order will affect about 171 planes worldwide. CEO Ben Minicucci said Alaska Airlines expects the inspections to be completed “in the next few days.”

According to Flightradar24 the plane involved in the incident began carrying passengers in November and has made only 145 flights. The Max 9 is the newest version of Boeing’s venerable 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle plane.

The Boeing 737 MAX Series was announced in 2011 and was introduced in May 2017. A Max 8 jet operated by Lion Air crashed in Indonesia in 2018, and an Ethiopian Airlines Max 8 crashed in 2019. Regulators around the world grounded the planes for nearly two years while Boeing changed an automated flight control system implicated in the crashes.

Federal prosecutors and Congress questioned whether Boeing had cut corners in its rush to get the Max approved quickly and with a minimum of training required for pilots. In 2021, Boeing settled a criminal investigation by agreeing to pay $2.5 billion, including a $244 million fine. 

After the crashes airlines paused buying the Max but soon resumed again. However, the plane has been plagued by problems. Last year, the FAA told pilots to limit use of an anti-ice system on the Max in dry conditions because of concern that inlets around the engines could overheat and break away, possibly striking the plane. In December Boeing told airlines to inspect the planes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder-control system.

In the latest incident a panel containing a window blew out of the port side of the Boeing 737 Max 9. The panel fills the space for what is termed a “deactivated mid-cabin exit”. It is at a position where, if the airline required it, an additional emergency exit could be located between the overwing and aft exits. Instead of this emergency exit a plug is fitted.

In May last year Ryanair announced it had ordered 300 new Boeing 737-MAX-10 aircraft for delivery between 2027 to 2033. In December it announced it has cut its winter flight schedule due to delays in the delivery of new Boeing 737 planes. The delays were attributed to production delays combined with Boeing hold-ups in repairs and deliveries in Seattle, Washington. Ryanair uses Boeing aircraft but it has a real emergency exit which is required to increase the capacity of the plane above the normal 189 limit.