The plane experienced a fuselage failure where the door blew out and was delivered something like two months ago.
The timing with the MAX 7 exemption request is special.
Finally the FAA has shown some initiative
This generation of 737 seems cursed. The MCAS scandal (and it was a scandal), just before the new year there were warnings to operators to check for loose nuts and now this.
Boeing are not having a good time.
It’s almost like the 737 was obsolete decades ago and Boeing chose to zombify its corpse instead of lay it to rest and develop a better narrow body!
There never should have been a “this generation” of 737, at least not how it was designed. It basically should have been an entirely new designation but they kept trying to shoehorn upgrades into it so pilots wouldn’t have to get recertified.
I entirely agree, But I also kinda understand it. Without the new engines they could not compete with the A32x product line. But they wouldn’t fit without the tricks they pulled. It should have been a new airframe designed to take those engines.
That re-design and certification would take too long though, and they’d lose huge market share to airbus.
Now, I say I understand their actions, this does not mean I agree with them!
Oh no it would take too long better make planes that will crash instead.
It also minimizes tooling costs.
This is what happens when you let the financial dicks push out the engineering dicks. Plain and simple.