United Airlines finds loose bolts during inspections of Boeing 737 Max 9

United Airlines has found loose bolts during inspections of the Boeing 727 Max 9 planes, it has been confirmed.

The airline has uncovered the loose bolts on plug doors on a number of the 737 Max 9 aircraft. It comes after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced all Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft will remain grounded after a window and chunk of fuselage blew out of one of its Alaska Airlines passenger planes mid flight.

Some 171 planes of the same type are currently grounded by the US regulator. Industry publication Air Current reported that United found loose bolts on other parts on at least five panels that were being inspected following the accident last weekend.

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In a statement, United said: "Since we began preliminary inspections on Saturday, we have found instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug - for example, bolts that needed additional tightening."

The door plug is a piece of fuselage with a small window that can be used as an emergency exit. It is this part of the aircraft that fell off mid flight over Oregon and landed in someone's back garden. The plane made an emergency landing and none of the passengers were injured.

United said it had cancelled 200 flights as of Monday (January 8) and expected significant cancellations to continue on Tuesday (January 9).

Alaska Airlines said in a recent statement: "While we await the airworthiness directive (AD) inspection criteria from the FAA and Boeing, our maintenance teams are prepared and ready to perform the required inspections of the mid exit door plugs on our 737-9 Max fleet.

"The 737-9 Max grounding has significantly impacted our