US aviation authority says seats on hundreds of Boeing 737 MAX jets may need inspections

SEATTLE – The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on July 27 that seats on hundreds of Boeing 737 MAX jets registered in the US may require inspections in case they were incorrectly installed and needed to be fixed.

If not, the seats could injure passengers and crew members during an emergency landing or block the aisle and slow an evacuation, the agency said.

The FAA’s proposed airworthiness directive issued on July 27 would apply to 453 jets registered in the US.

The agency has jurisdiction over only US airlines, but foreign regulators typically follow FAA directives if applicable.

The proposed directive comes as Boeing works to improve its production quality and boost output under CEO Kelly Ortberg.

Production quality problems were revealed in early 2024 when a door plug panel blew out of a nearly new Alaska Air 737 MAX in flight.

The agency said in the airworthiness directive proposal that it received a report that some passenger seat assemblies were not correctly installed in the seat tracks.

That meant the assemblies could disengage from the seat tracks if there was an increased load, turbulence or an emergency landing, the FAA said.

“This condition, if not addressed, could result in injury to passengers and crew during an emergency landing or could block the aisle, which could slow evacuation,” it added.

There could be up to 69 track-mounted passenger seat assemblies on each 737 MAX plane and the issue would take an estimated one work-hour to fix each assembly and requires no parts to do so,, the FAA said.

It did not say how quickly airlines would need to fix the issue.

A Boeing spokesperson said the plane maker issued guidance to operators about the issue in December 2025.

“We support the FAA making that guidance mandatory,” the spokesperson said in an e-mail. REUTERS