US warns hundreds of Boeing jets may require seat safety inspections

Regulator proposes checks connected 453 US-registered jets implicit seats that whitethorn beryllium incorrectly installed.

The US aviation authorization has warned that seats connected hundreds of Boeing 737 MAX planes could person been installed incorrectly and whitethorn necessitate inspection.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said connected Monday that the contented relates to 453 jets registered successful the US and projected requiring airlines to inspect the seats.

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If not installed correctly, the seats could travel escaped during an exigency landing and “injure passengers and unit members”, the FAA said, adding that they could besides “block the aisle and dilatory an evacuation”.

The projected bid would use lone to US-registered planes due to the fact that the FAA does not modulate overseas airlines.

Regulators successful different countries, however, often travel FAA orders erstwhile the contented affects craft operating successful their markets.

A Boeing spokesperson told the Reuters quality bureau that the institution had issued guidance to operators ‌on the substance successful December 2025.

“We enactment the FAA making that guidance mandatory,” the spokesperson said successful an email.

The informing adds to years of scrutiny of Boeing’s information record.

A compartment panel blew off an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 successful January 2024, forcing an exigency landing and prompting the FAA to crushed 171 jets.

Investigators aboriginal recovered that the sheet was missing 4 cardinal bolts.

The scrutiny intensified aft a spate of different accidents astir the world, arsenic good arsenic the decease of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett successful March 2024 portion helium was providing grounds for a information suit against the firm.

In June 2025, the US National Transportation Safety Board said Boeing had failed to supply capable training, guidance and oversight to forestall the Alaska Airlines incident.

There are astir 2,300 737 MAX jets operating astir the world, including 823 successful the US, according to aviation advisory and quality steadfast IBA.