I don’t even think it was a door. I watched a video of it on TikTok and it looked like a regular row of seats. I think it was just a piece of the hull.
Have they stated what fell off yet? I can’t imagine how scary that was.
Comment on Boeing 737 Max planes are grounded after a hole blew in one mid-flight
fastandcurious@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The incident seems much more serious than an isolated case of a doorplug falling off, I wonder if they are hiding something, another design flaw maybe?
AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
circuscritic@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Door plug means that it’s a spot in the frame where a future door can be installed by removing the “plug”. I the meantime, it just looks like a piece of the fuselodge. The plug is what got ripped out midair.
AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
Oh my bad
PorradaVFR@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I heard it was one of those emergency exit panels (not a full door, nor just a passenger window) but that could be inaccurate. Either way, not a good look for Boeing.
wandermind@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
What fell off was a plug filling in an optional emergency exit location. It was a regular row of seats because the plane didn’t have the optional emergency exit installed (it is only required for high density passenger cabin configurations).
circuscritic@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
My assumption is that the 737 Max is simply a fundamentally unsafe and unsound design.
I’m sure within 15 years they’ll complete the final retrofit to make it safe and sound, and in the end, it will end up costing 300% of what a new design would have.
But, it’ll actually work out for Boeing executives and shareholders, so it will be taught to future MBA student as a success story about the heroic and stoic leadership that generated record profits for the low cost of a few hundred lives.
PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Most of the fuselage should be insanely similar to other 737 models. I can’t imagine how someone fucked up badly enough to lose a door plug,
circuscritic@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
That’s the problem… Reusing a 50-year-old design, with new engines and other technology that should have been used with a new fuselage design…
PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
I mean I’d argue it’s only 30 years since NG, but that’s a different argument. It’s not like it isn’t a proven airframe that still goes through continual process improvements. They certainly could have done things differently, but way more time and cost.
I don’t think they know the exact cause and they grounded them out of an excess of caution. I’m going to guess a process got bought off that wasn’t complete. That’s the kind of thing that’s engineered to not fall off if it’s properly installed.
We’ll see how things pan out in the next few days.