Indonesia Lifts Ban on Boeing 737-9 Flights

DALLAS — Indonesian carriers operating the Boeing 737-9 are now able to bring the aircraft back into service. The country’s transport ministry has lifted the ban on the aircraft type after undertaking checks and inspections.

The grounding of the model was only temporary, allowing the Boeing 737 MAX variant to re-enter service once the required inspections had taken place. Transport ministry spokeswoman Adita Irawati told local media in Jakarta that "the temporary grounding was only for a few days. We inspected the field and coordinated with Boeing, and we saw there were no problems."

The ministry banned flights using the model from operating in Indonesia following a serious incident involving an Alaska Airlines (AS) flight operated with the type. The January 5 incident resulted in an aircraft door being blown off mid-flight while the aircraft was climbing.

PK-LHR Lion Air Boeing 737-900ER WIMM KNO. Photo: Wilbert Tana/Airways

Lion Air Resumes Boeing 737-9 Flights

Low-cost carrier Lion Air (JT) will return three of its aircraft to service following Indonesia's Ministry of Transportation lifting the temporary ban on the model operating in the country. The LCC, based at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (JKT), has three Boeing 737-9s in its fleet. JT is, however, the only operator of the Boeing 737-9 in Indonesia.

Irawati stated that JT's Boeing 737-9s have a different door system than that of the AS aircraft. JT’s Boeing aircraft can carry 221 passengers in its single-cabin configuration, while AS' can carry 178 passengers in a two-cabin configuration.

The announcement of the resumption of JT's Boeing 737-9 flights comes on the same day the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a ‘Safety Alert for Operators’ (SAFO), revealing that certain US airlines have conducted additional inspections on the mid-exit door plugs of their -900ER aircraft and have discovered issues with bolts during maintenance inspections.

Lion Air has 65 -900ER aircraft and was the first user of this hybrid aircraft in Asia. JT's -900ERs have a single-class configuration and can carry as many as 213 passengers, meaning these do not have door plugs but activated emergency door exits instead.

Featured image: Lion Air HS-LSH Boeing 737-9 MAX. Photo: Brandon Farris/Airways

https://airwaysmag.com/faa-inspections-boeing-737-900er-plugs/