Would you fly on a Boeing 737 Max 8?

[Pupsandturtles]

They are approved in the US (and maybe some other places) and we are due to fly on one soon. They say the software issue has been fixed, but clearly, they can be wrong about safety. Other flights/ airlines are available but with less ideal flight times.

I don’t feel great about it. Would you go or switch to another airline?

Thank you for replying

Personally I'd avoid it, the worry just wouldn't be worth it, especially if it was a holiday. Would rather pay more or fly at a more inconvenient time than have the anxiety!

I wouldn't have expected to say yes but then found myself on a Ryanair 737 800 a few times, so now I would have no problem. They are fully in service with the issues resolved it seems.

However and for info the plug that blew out on Alaskan was not an emergency exit..it was in simple terms a blanked off/supposedly sealed door opening, hidden from view from the passengers behind normal cabin trim.

That's interesting. The last flights I took I was surprised on boarding to find that my window seat did not have a window. I had the same seat booked for the return journey and again no seat. The airline was Norwegian and they have leased Max 8s as I just checked. Looking at the flight times I took they do sometimes operate Max 8s on the route but I didn't note on boarding what plane type I was on. Was that likely to have been a Max 8? Seat 11A in case anyone knows the layouts.

I had the same seat booked for the return journey and again no WINDOW. Typo

Is a 777-300 okay?!

Ffs
yes

People freaking out about plane safety should be reminded that in 2023 there were ZERO fatalities on an international jet flight
(a small number on domestic turboprop craft in places with a poor safety record like Nepal). Total number of flights last year was about 34 million.

I wonder how many people died in road accidents, globally, in 2023
(no I don’t know either but it will be a heck of a lot higher than zero!)

737-800 is not a max
ryanair have 737-800s and 737 max 8s but call the latter 737 8200 so as to not freak out passengers. But they are the same as 737 maxes and to most people would look the same, just a bit newer than the 800s

Since you get no choice of the plane model you fly in. I probably would.

I'd definitely be ok. Planes have probably been checked a million times so that it can't happen again 😊

Not a chance, even before the incident the other day.

not entirely true. If you’re a proper plane geek like me you can make an educated guess on what plane most flights will be using. So you could choose one over the other if you were so inclined.

Ffs
thanks

The latest issue is with the 737 max 9, no UK carriers fly this. The emergency exit is plugged in planes which don’t have the maximum number of passengers - the issue was with the plug.

If you want to avoid 737 max altogether don’t fly Ryanair or tui, simple. Fly easyJet.

@StillWantingADog

Hi

"You said Ryanair only have 8 maxes -
they have 136 so there is asignificantchance of any Ryanair flight out of/into the UK being on one"

I don't want to get into an argument, maybe I think some confusion has crept in somewhere (perhaps a typo my end, I honestly can't be bothered to go back and check TBH). I'm very much aware that FR, europe wide, have a lot of more than 8 Maxes total on the books and agree with you about the odds of encountering a MAX on any Ryanair flight out of the UK (or TUI for that matter).

As a more general point for people now looking at bookings for the aircraft type I'm afraid I witnessed enough equipment substitutions in my time working in the industry to know that that the exact aircraft type that's on a booking can be meaningless, especially months ahead.

@notimagain
Fair enough, you def wrote 8 but you’re clearly quite knowledgable so assume a typo 😀

totally agree with you on your second point

I don’t have an issue with flying a max but prefer an airbus (particularly an orange one) any day. Hence easyJet get more money out of me than FR.

Most people would not choose a window seat that didn't have a window so seems logical to me.

@Emma8888
what makes you think there was no window? It was a door with a normal window in it

@Emma8888

Hi,

"Most people would not choose a window seat that didn't have a window so seems logical to me."

If we are still talking about the Alaskan incident it's important to realise that from a passenger POV (literally) from inside the cabin for that seat row there was a normal sized window and also there was no sign of a door or emergency exit.

Reason being the area of the aircraft in question has a door frame built into the basic structure but because of the seating configuration an actual door was not required. As a result the opening was blanked off with a plug (not the correct term but it will do) which had a normal sized window built into it

The interior side was then finished off with normal sidewall panelling, so from a seating/booking/appearance POV it was normal cabin, not an exit row, emergency exit row or similar.

I'll maybe see if I can post an image later.

Oh ok I misunderstood- the term blank implied it was a blank wall (no window etc.). I've been on planes that have a missing window where some have emergency exits (and read countless complaints on flying forums about 'my window seat was missing a window) and thought that was what was in play on this flight.

@Emma8888 agree that was my initial assumption but it was a normal windowed door apparently

on the subject of which it has apparently been found last night. And at least one mobile phone totally intact without a scratch!

@Emma8888

Oh ok I misunderstood- the term blank implied it was a blank wall (no window etc.).

Oh, there's been a whole load of misunderstanding about this, you're not alone.

It's now being described as a door plug. It definitely had none of the moving internal parts (cams, rollers etc) that a "proper" exit door contains and that left room for a standard cabin window rather then the smaller porthole that most functional exit doors have.

All that said according to a presser last night (?NTSB) the adjacent seat was unoccupied by chance, it wasn't blocked off, so that speculation is binned....but there was confirmation the aircraft had a history of pressurisation problems.

Here's a pic of the 'door' on another plane. From the outside you can see the shape of the door but from the inside it looks like a normal window.

Thanks @Choux

Couldn't find a still image of the interior but If anyone wants to have a look at the 2:15 point of this video there's a image of the cabin wall in the door plug area.....