The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is proposing an inspection of hundreds of seats installed in Boeing 737 Max aircraft due to safety concerns.
The FAA proposed adopting a new airworthiness directive for three 737 Max models—737-8, 737-9, and 737-8200, the agency said in a notice published in the Federal Register on July 27.
An airworthiness directive is a legally enforceable regulation issued by the FAA to correct what it deems to be an unsafe condition in a product. The proposed directive “would require a detailed inspection of the seat track fittings of each left and right side track-mounted passenger seat assembly for correct installation and applicable on-condition actions,” the FAA said in a notice.
According to the agency, it has received a report suggesting that certain track-mounted passenger seats were not properly installed in the models’ seat tracks. Incorrect installations can result in seats disengaging from seat tracks during turbulence, increased load, or emergency landing.
If not addressed, the situation could result in passengers and crew members getting injured during an emergency situation and the aisle becoming blocked, which can slow down an evacuation process, the FAA warned.
The FAA decided to issue the notice after determining that the unsafe conditions are “likely to exist or develop on other products of the same type design,” the agency said.
The issue is estimated to affect 453 airplanes. With an estimated 69 track-mounted passenger seat assemblies per airplane, aircraft operators may need to shell out more than $2.65 million to inspect all the affected seats, according to the FAA.
A Boeing spokesperson said the planemaker issued guidance to operators about the issue in December 2025.
“We support the FAA making that guidance mandatory,” the spokesperson said.
The FAA prohibited Boeing from issuing these certificates for newly built 737 planes in 2019 following two accidents.
In the first incident, a Lion Air Flight 610 crashed over Indonesia in October 2018. A few months later, in March 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed in Ethiopia. Combined, the accidents resulted in the deaths of 346 passengers and crew members.
In 2022, the FAA also stopped Boeing from issuing airworthiness certificates for 787 planes due to production quality issues.
In September 2025, the FAA allowed Boeing to start issuing these certificates for some of the 787 and 737 Max planes. The agency and Boeing issued certificates on alternating weeks.
The FAA said earlier this month that over the past eight months, it has observed that the airworthiness certificates issued by the agency and Boeing had “comparable production quality findings.”
The agency decided that Boeing can now handle this responsibility. The FAA will continue inspecting, monitoring, and auditing Boeing’s production system. The oversight will involve “closely observing and assessing” the company’s safety culture and Safety Management System, the agency said.
“The decision follows months of thorough data and safety review demonstrating consistent production quality and reflects the FAA’s confidence in Boeing’s ability to issue airworthiness certificates under FAA oversight,” the FAA said in a July 17 statement.
737 Deliveries, Orders
Boeing is set to publish its second quarter 2026 financial results on July 28.
In the first quarter, the company reported revenue of more than $22 billion, up 14 percent from the same quarter last year, according to an April 22 statement. Net loss was $7 million, down from $31 million.
The company announced a total of 140 net orders for planes booked in the first quarter. This includes delivering 50 737 aircraft to the Aviation Capital Group and 20 737 planes to Air India.
In total, 143 commercial airplanes were delivered by the company in Q1, including 114 737 aircraft.
This month, Boeing announced more 737 bookings. On July 20, Boeing said that aircraft leasing company SMBC Aviation Capital had placed an order for a hundred 737 Max planes.
On July 21, the company announced that Luxair, the national airline of Luxembourg, had confirmed two orders for 737 planes. The same day, Boeing confirmed that Uganda Airlines was ordering four 737 aircraft.
