Boeing urges airlines to inspect 737 Max planes for possible loose bolts
FILE - A Boeing 737 Max jet prepares to land at Boeing Field following a test flight in Seattle, Sept. 30, 2020. Some engineers for the Federal Aviation Administration wanted to ground the Boeing 737 Max soon after a second deadly crash, but top officials in the agency overruled them, according to a government watchdog. The inspector general of the Transportation Department said in a new report Friday, April 28, 2023, that FAA officials wanted to sort out raw data about the two crashes, and held off grounding the plane despite growing international pressure. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
Boeing instructed customer airlines to inspect their 737 Max jets for loose bolts, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Thursday.
The request comes after the manufacturer discovered two aircraft with missing bolts in the rudder control system, raising concerns about faults across all aircraft.
“The issue identified on the particular airplane has been remedied,” Boeing told CNN in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are recommending operators inspect their 737 Max airplanes and inform us of any findings.”
The inspection request entails a two-hour probe of the aircraft’s safety-critical parts for each of the approximately 1,300 737 Max jets in service, the FAA said.
The 787 Max aircraft has faced significant safety scrutiny since it was removed from service following a spate of autopilot errors after it was deployed in 2018, including one crash that killed nearly 350 people.
An FAA report in April alleged the company ignored warnings from engineers to ground the 737 Max after two deadly crashes in late 2018. The airframe was returned to the air almost two years later.
The company has struggled financially since the COVID pandemic, losing $1.6 billion in the third quarter of this year, citing a falling demand for new aircraft and a costly contract to construct the next Air Force One.