By Gabriel Araujo
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian airline Gol believes that quality issues across the aviation industry must be assessed and mitigation plans put in place so risks can be minimized, it told Reuters in a statement on Thursday.
The carrier’s remarks follow the mid-air Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 panel blowout last week, when a so-called door plug snapped off the fuselage of the Boeing aircraft, leaving a gaping hole on the plane next to empty seats.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun acknowledged errors by the U.S. planemaker.
“Across the entire aviation industry, all quality problems must undoubtedly be assessed, with the creation of action plans to mitigate problems and risks,” said Gol, which is Brazil’s second-largest carrier in terms of passengers transported.
Gol noted that Boeing itself and other manufacturers have their processes audited by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) “so that problems like these can be solved and avoided in the future.”
The airline operates nearly 40 MAX 8 aircraft and has orders in place for the MAX 10, but it does not operate the MAX 9.
The Alaska Airlines accident has put Boeing back under scrutiny as it awaits certification of its smaller MAX 7 as well as the larger MAX 10, which is needed to compete with a key Airbus model.
Other carriers have also shown concern over quality issues in the sector, with Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary telling Reuters that Boeing made “tremendous strides” on production quality in the last two years but was “not there yet.”
(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo, Editing by Nick Zieminski)
