The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has recommended Boeing Co. redesign the predecessor of the trouble 737 MAX, the 737 NG, to avoid any repeat of an engine blowout on April 17, 2018, which killed one passenger who was partially sucked out of the aircraft mid-flight after the structure at the front of the engine came apart and pierced the fuselage of the stricken Southwest Airlines jet.
A fan blade of the CFM International engine broke, which led to a chain of events which resulted in damage being inflicted on the engine’s front structure. The recommendation by the NTSB is that the inlet to the engine be redesigned in order that it could now contain any loose part during an engine failure.
The NTSB has called on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to require the redesign to be installed on all new 737 NG aircraft and retrofitted on all existing 737 NGs, with the latter request likely affecting some 7,000 aircraft.
