FAA Orders Boeing 737 Inspections Over Oxygen Mask Issue

Facts

• The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered an inspection of 2.6K Boeing 737 airplanes amid concerns that passenger oxygen masks could fail in emergencies.¹
• The FAA said it had published the airworthiness directive on Monday after receiving multiple reports of passenger supply unit (PSU) oxygen generators shifting out of position — an issue it said 'could result in an inability to provide supplemental oxygen to passengers during a depressurization event.'²
• Last month, a Boeing investigation found that the issue was caused by a failure of a pressure-sensitive adhesive used to secure the generators under the retention straps and called on the airlines to carry out visual inspections of the oxygen generators.³
• The FAA published the airworthiness directive without allowing the industry experts to comment, claiming that 'the risk to the flying public justifies forgoing notice.' Airlines reportedly have 30 days to comply with the directive.²
• In a statement, Boeing said it had 'gone back to the original adhesive for all new deliveries to ensure the generators remain firmly in place, as intended,' adding that inspections of ins-service and undelivered 737s didn't identify units that failed to operate.¹
• The directive has come hours after the US Department of Justice said Boeing had agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of fraud for violating a 2021 agreement relating to the crashes of two 737 Max jetliners that claimed 346 lives.⁴

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²Simple Flying, ³Federal Register and ⁴Guardian.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Simple Flying. While depressurization events that require oxygen masks to be deployed on planes are fairly rare, the FAA thought this was a serious enough issue to not allow the typical comment period on its directives and gave airlines a shorter period than usual to comply.
• Narrative B, as provided by Young Post. In general, aviation regulators have a ways to go in coming to terms with the evolving impacts of climate change on the industry. From pressure incidents requiring oxygen masks to deploy to violent in-flight turbulence, regulators must urgently rewrite the book on airline safety.

Predictions