Boeing to withdraw Max 7 exemption request as safety scrutiny intensifies

Boeing said late on Monday it was withdrawing a request for a key safety exemption that could have allowed US regulators to speed up certification of its coming 737 Max 7, in the latest fallout from the planemaker’s ongoing crisis.

Lawmakers had been pressuring the planemaker to withdraw the petition following a harrowing mid-air cabin blowout on Jan. 5 that has exposed numerous safety and quality control concerns at one of the world’s two major jetmakers.

No one died in the blowout that left passengers staring at open space 16,000 feet above the ground and forced the pilots to make an emergency landing. But the incident has turned into a full-blown safety and reputational crisis for Boeing that will slow plane production and risks it ceding further market share to Airbus.

The withdrawal, first reported by Reuters, throws the anticipated timeline for certifying Boeing’s Max 7 and the larger, better-selling Max 10 into further doubt because it may force Boeing to make design changes more quickly than it had planned.

CEO David Calhoun withdrew the exemption request after being asked to do so in Capitol Hill meetings last week as Boeing grapples with growing safety concerns following the mid-air incident on a 737 Max 9 jet operated by Alaska Airlines.

After its best-selling Max family of jets resumed service following two fatal crashes, Boeing had at one point forecast it would win approval for the Max 7 and 10 by the end of 2022. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has repeatedly declined to put any timetable on approval.

The ongoing delays have set back the fleet plans of major carriers including Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, the biggest customers for the Max 7 and Max 10 respectively.

Boeing’s decision to withdraw the exemption request came ahead of its fourth-quarter results on Wednesday. Shares were down 0.7 per cent in premarket action Tuesday.

The exemption would have allowed the Max 7 to be certified before making design changes to the nacelle inlet structure and engine anti-ice system to prevent overheating that could lead to severe damage or a failure of the engine inlet inner barrel.

The Max 10 will also require design changes if an exemption is not sought. A nacelle is the structure that holds an aircraft engine.

Boeing originally proposed the Max 7 exemption run through May 2026 - the time period the company believed necessary to develop and certify design changes, but approval of the request was thrown into doubt after the Alaska Airlines accident.

“While we are confident that the proposed time-limited exemption for that system follows established FAA processes to ensure safe operation, we will instead incorporate an engineering solution that will be completed during the certification process,” Boeing said in a statement, without providing an estimate of how long that would take.

The FAA deferred comment to Boeing.

Duckworth, Calhoun confer

US Senator Tammy Duckworth, who leads the Senate Commerce Committee’s aviation safety subcommittee, said last week she requested that Boeing withdraw the exemption request during a meeting with CEO Calhoun.

Calhoun called Duckworth about the withdrawal decision, she said in a Monday evening interview with Reuters, adding that he thanked her for pushing the company to do “what is absolutely the right thing to do.”

Duckworth called the withdrawal “probably a tough decision for the shareholders and but also the right decision for the people who will be flying as passengers on the aircraft.”

Before the Alaska accident, Boeing was expected to release a new financial and delivery target for 2024 and provide an update on its forecast for 2025-26, the timeframe in which the planemaker’s operations were expected to stabilize.

Spirit and Boeing referred queries on the probe to the NTSB. The agency’s chair Jennifer Homendy said on Jan. 18 it was too early to say if the root cause of the blowout was missing or mis-installed bolts.