These statements come after an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 MAX encountered an emergency on January 6

Former senior Boeing Co. executives and engineers are warning passengers to avoid using the airline’s troubled 737 MAX 9 jets because aircraft return to service. “I would never fly a MAX airplane. I’ve worked in the factories where these airplanes are built, and I’ve seen the pressure on employees to get airplanes out the door,” Ed Pearson, a former senior manager at Boeing, told the mediaLos Angeles Times.

Mr. Pearson, who advocated grounding the planes even before the 2018 Lion Air crash, highlighted a study by his Aviation Safety Foundation that revealed more than 1,300 submissions to the FAA about Boeing Report of safety issues on MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft.

Joe Jacobson, a former Boeing engineer who worked for the Federal Aviation Administration, issued a similar warning and said it would be “premature” to allow the Max 9 to fly again. “I would tell my family to avoid the MAX. I would literally tell everyone,” Mr Jacobson told the media Los Angeles Times.

He noted that he and other safety advocates have been raising the alarm about numerous safety issues on the MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft for years. Jacobson also cited a culture at Boeing that values ​​”financial engineering over technical engineering.”

Mr. Pearson agreed, saying, “In this culture, money is everything.” They measure success by how many airplanes they deliver, not how many good airplanes they deliver. When you put all these factors together, you have a recipe for disaster. “

On January 6, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 MAX faced an emergency when one of its doors was blown open in mid-air just minutes after takeoff. The flight, which carried 177 people, took off from Portland International Airport and made an emergency landing in Oregon. Following the incident, Boeing’s planes were temporarily grounded to undergo federal inspections. CEO David Calhoun admitted it was a “quality escape” and promised it would never happen again.

Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines gradually resumed flights on Friday after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration announced maintenance and inspection plans to approve the return of the MAX 9 to service.

“Our teams have been working hard to help our customers restore their 737-9 aircraft for service. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved detailed inspection protocols last Wednesday. Today, all 737-9 operators have safely returned the aircraft to service back into service,” Mr. Calhoun said.

United also began operating its MAX 9 fleet on Saturday morning from Newark to Las Vegas.