The US Federal Aviation Administration has issued a new airworthiness directive requiring inspections of 471 US-registered Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, after regulators flagged the potential for stress cracks in a key structural component near the forward fuselage doors.
The directive, announced in early August 2026, covers Boeing 737 MAX 8, MAX 9 and high-density 737-8200 variants on the US register. It was prompted by concerns over cracking in a fitting known as the “bear strap,” located at the forward upper corner of the forward galley door cutout. The FAA said cracks in the fuselage skin and bear strap “may lead to the inability of the principal structural element to sustain limit loads” and could adversely affect the structural integrity of the airplane.
According to the FAA, the cracks can result from “high operating stresses in the fuselage skin and bear strap due to stress concentration at the corner of the door cutout.” Notably, no 737 MAX has yet been found with a cracked strap. The problem, however, has been known to affect earlier-generation 737s for more than a decade — the FAA required operators to inspect bear straps on 737 Classics in 2014 and mandated inspections on 737NG aircraft in 2021. The agency says the MAX is likely susceptible to the same crack conditions because of the variants’ structural similarities.
The order follows a notice of proposed rulemaking published on 25 November 2025, and formalizes an inspection program Boeing first called for in an Alert Requirements Bulletin issued to MAX operators in December 2024. That bulletin specified procedures for an external general visual inspection of the fuselage skin for existing repairs and any applicable on-condition actions.
The FAA estimates the external general visual inspection will take about one hour per aircraft at $85 per hour, for a total cost to US operators of roughly $40,035. More detailed external and eddy-current inspections for cracks could take up to four hours per aircraft, bringing the total estimated cost to about $160,140. The directive takes effect on 10 September 2026.
The 737 MAX action was one of two regulatory documents the FAA issued in the same week. The agency separately proposed a rule addressing the Boeing 787’s Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines, warning that debris from an uncontained failure of one engine could, in a specific scenario, strike and damage the opposite engine. It also comes just weeks after the FAA proposed a separate directive, on 27 July 2026, covering track-mounted passenger seat assemblies on hundreds of 737 MAX aircraft.
For Boeing, the inspection order adds to a steady stream of regulatory attention on its best-selling narrowbody family. Boeing said it has “conducted engineering analysis to identify root cause and is working through engineering changes that would prevent such cracking,” adding that the inspections “provide multiple opportunities to identify and correct possible cracking before cracks exceed critical length.”
Sources: AeroTime, FlightGlobal. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Marco Bianchi.
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