FAA Orders 737 MAX Bear Strap Checks — Why a Visual Inspection Decides If Eddy Current Testing Is Required

On August 6, 2026, the FAA published AD 2026-15-11 (91 FR 50698), effective September 10, 2026, ordering inspection of the bear strap at the forward galley door on certain Boeing 737-8, 737-9, and 737-8200 airplanes — 471 U.S.-registered jets, roughly 1,429 worldwide. What makes this AD worth reading closely isn't the aircraft count. It's that the eddy current testing most coverage leads with is actually conditional, triggered only if a simpler visual check turns up something first.

What triggered the AD. The concern traces back to older 737NG aircraft, where cracks were found in the bear strap — a structural reinforcement at the upper-forward corner of the forward galley door cutout. Boeing's investigation traced the root cause to surface scratches inadvertently created while removing sealant and adhesive during the hot-bonding process used to manufacture the part. No cracks have actually been found on the 737 MAX fleet — the FAA is ordering these inspections precautionarily, because the MAX shares the same structural design and manufacturing process as the NG variants where cracking occurred.

The two-step structure worth understanding. Per Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin 737-53A1408 RB, the AD's baseline requirement is a general visual inspection of the fuselage skin checking specifically for existing repairs in the area — not for cracks directly. Only if that visual inspection finds a repair does the AD escalate to on-condition actions: repetitive detailed inspection for cracking, high frequency eddy current (HFEC) inspection of the fuselage skin and bear strap along the door corner radius for surface cracks, and low frequency eddy current (LFEC) inspection of the bear strap at fastener locations for subsurface cracks HFEC can't reach.

Why the sequencing matters for MRO planning. This isn't a blanket eddy current mandate — it's a records-driven decision tree. Whether a given aircraft needs HFEC/LFEC at all depends entirely on whether its fuselage skin has an existing repair in that area, which means repair history and configuration records determine your NDT scope before a single eddy current probe touches the airplane. Shops that can't quickly confirm repair status from records risk either over-inspecting jets that don't need it, or missing the escalation trigger on ones that do.

This kind of conditional, records-gated inspection scope is exactly where Lion NDT's Eddy Current Testing services fit — HFEC and LFEC inspection to the specific fastener locations and depth requirements this AD calls for, paired with the documentation discipline to confirm which aircraft actually trigger the on-condition requirement in the first place.