Southwest Airlines and American Airlines grounded dozens of their Boeing 737 Max jets after the airplane manufacturer warned of electrical issues on some aircraft.
Boeing notified Dallas-based Southwest and Fort Worth-based American, the two largest operators of the jets, along with 14 other operators Thursday night of a potential electrical issue and that a “sufficient ground path exists for a component of the electrical power system.”
Airlines do not have a timeline for when inspections and repairs will be made to get the planes back into service.
Southwest grounded 30 of its 58 Boeing 737 Max 8 jets affected by the issue Thursday, although it expected “minimal disruptions to our operation,” said spokesman Brian Parrish. Southwest had put the 737 Max jets back into operation only last month, the last major operator in the U.S. to do so after the Federal Aviation Administration gave clearance for the jets to return in November.
American Airlines, the first U.S. airline to bring the Max back into service, removed 17 of its most recently delivered 737 Max jets from service Friday. American has 24 other 737 Max jets not subject to the warning.
“At Boeing’s direction, we have temporarily removed these 17 aircraft from service in order to complete necessary inspections and make any changes recommended or required by Boeing or the (FAA),” spokeswoman Sarah Jantz said in a statement. “As we shared when we returned the 737 Max to commercial service, the safety of our customers and team members comes above all else. It’s with this unequivocal standard that we rigorously maintain and monitor all our aircraft — including the Boeing 737 Max — to ensure every plane in the air is safe.”
Chicago-based United removed 16 of its 30 Boeing 737 Max jets from operation. Alaska Airlines, based in Seattle, removed all four of its 737 Max planes.
The electrical issues are just the latest setback for the 737 Max, a jet that was grounded for nearly two years after two crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019. Those crashes were tied to a faulty software system that helped control the plane’s pitch, but the flaw and later revelations about how it was developed triggered a global investigation that upended Boeing’s leadership and led to questions about how the U.S. regulates the aircraft manufacturing industry.
Since the Max grounding, airlines and Boeing have been hyperaware of any potential issues with the Max and have moved aggressively to fix them.
This electrical issue also comes weeks after Southwest recommitted to its all-Boeing 737 fleet with an order for 100 more Max 7 jets, the smaller variant of the plane.
