The Federal Aviation Administration is considering inspections for 453 Boeing aircraft over concerns that seat assemblies might be bolted on incorrectly.
The airworthiness directive, proposed Monday according to a listing in the Federal Register, was created after the agency received reports that “certain passenger seat assemblies were not correctly installed in the seat tracks” and are therefore unsafe.
Specifically, the FAA said that it received word that shear plungers — pins with springs that help fasten a track-mounted seat assembly to the floor of the plane’s cabin — were not correctly lowered.
Seat assemblies with improperly installed plungers could then get off their tracks in the case of emergency landings, turbulence or an increased load, which could injure crew and passengers or block the aisles, aviation officials said.
If the directive is passed, inspections will need to be done for the fittings of each passenger seat assembly on the affected planes to ensure they are installed correctly.
The directive would affect 453 Boeing 737-8, 737-9, and 737-8200 planes, with each plane having as many as 69 seat assemblies, according to FAA estimates.
The FAA’s high estimate for the cost of the inspections is more than $2.6 million, per the Federal Register listing.
Boeing previously put out a bulletin to plane operators regarding the issue and the proper way to inspect the seat assembly fittings in December 2025, and told Reuters that “we support the FAA making that guidance mandatory” via the airworthiness directive.
The public comment period for the directive is open until Sept. 10.
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