Boeing Crisis as More Than 100 Whistleblowers Contact FAA
NewsweekJul 10
FAA Orders Boeing 737 Inspections Over Oxygen Mask Issue
Above: In this handout photo provided by the National Transportation Safety Board, oxygen masks hang from the ceiling in the cabin interior of Asiana Airlines flight 214 on July 7, 2013 in San Francisco, California. Image copyright: NTSB/Handout/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The 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.
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."
The Spin
Narrative A
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
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.