The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Monday raised safety concerns over seats installed on Boeing 737 MAX jets registered in the U.S. In a proposed airworthiness directive, the FAA said improperly installed seats could “disengage” during an emergency landing or block an aisle during an evacuation.
Improperly Installed Seats
The proposed airworthiness directive instructs airlines to conduct a “detailed inspection” of the seat track fittings on 453 jets registered in the United States.
Those aircraft represent about one-fifth of the more than 2,300 737 MAX jets currently in operation. While the FAA has jurisdiction only over U.S. airlines, foreign regulators typically follow the agency’s directives.
According to the proposed airworthiness directive, the FAA received a report that some passenger seats were improperly installed on their tracks. The agency said the seats could disengage during turbulence, increased loads, or an emergency landing.
$2.7 Million
The proposed inspections will cost airlines approximately $2.7 million, according to the FAA. This is based on an average labor cost of $85 to reassemble each of roughly 69 seats on each of the 453 jets.
According to the FAA, each seat assembly takes about one hour to inspect and another hour to correct, with no replacement parts required. However, the agency did not say how quickly airlines would need to correct the problem.
According to a Boeing spokesperson, the planemaker issued guidance to airlines about the issue in December 2025. The Boeing spokesperson said in an email, “We support the FAA making that guidance mandatory.”
Boeing Production Problems
This is not the first time Boeing has faced production quality issues. Boeing’s production quality issues came under intense scrutiny in early 2024 after a door-plug panel blew off an Alaska Airlines flight.
Less than two weeks before the latest issue emerged, the FAA reinstated Boeing’s authority to perform final safety signoffs on 737 aircraft for the first time in nearly seven years. The privilege had been revoked following the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which killed 346 people.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, “We worked hard to build this trust with the FAA, and we take this responsibility very seriously.”
