There are no UK-registered Boeing 737 Max 9s of the type grounded in the US for safety inspections after part of the fuselage of an aircraft operated by Alaska Airlines fell off on Friday.
Confirmation came from the Civil Aviation Authority as it wrote to non-UK carriers to say the type should not be operated in UK airspace until inspections have been carried out.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said that to its knowledge no airline in an EU member state operated an aircraft in the same configuration as the B737 Max 9 involved in the US incident.
“This configuration is typically adopted by airlines flying lower-density operations (with lower passenger capacity) where this additional exit is not required to meet evacuation safety requirements,” the EASA said.
“The 737-9 aircraft operating in Europe do not have this configuration and are therefore not grounded by the emergency airworthiness directive and can continue to operate normally.”
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded 171 B737 Max 9 aircraft worldwide for immediate inspections which take between for and eight hours per aircraft.
Other types of the B737 Max are operated in Europe by the likes of Ryanair and Tui but are unaffected.
The majority of B737 Max 9s used in the US are operated by United Airlines and Alaska Airlines, while Turkish Airlines, Panama’s Copa Airlines and Aeromexico have also grounded aircraft of the same model for inspections.
Alaska Airlines grounded 65 aircraft and cancelled 163 flights affecting 23,000 passengers, while United said about 180 flights had been affected due to inspections needed on 79 B737 Max 9s.
The FAA issued an airworthiness directive on Saturday “to address the potential in-flight loss of a mid cabin door plug, which could result in injury to passengers and crew, the door impacting the airplane, and/or loss of control of the airplane”.
The emergency directive came after a mid cabin door plug blew open on an Alaska Airlines B737 Max 9 with 171 passengers and six crew on board about six minutes after take off at more than 16,000ft on a flight from Portland in Oregon to Ontario airport in southern California.
The aircraft returned to Portland to make an emergency landing, with a number of passengers with injuries that required medical attention.
Alaska Airlines said that disruption due to flight cancellations would last until at least the middle of the week as the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSAB) assumed the lead role in investigating Friday’s incident.
Boeing said: “Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers.
“We agree with and fully support the FAA’s decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane.
“In addition, a Boeing technical team is supporting the NTSB’s investigation into last night’s event. We will remain in close contact with our regulator and customers.”
B737 Max aircraft were grounded in 2019 for a year and a half after two crashed within six months of each other killing all those on board – a Lion Air flight in Indonesia and an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi.