A Boeing 737 MAX aircraft lands after an FAA test flight at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, in June 2020.
Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images
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Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images
A Boeing 737 MAX aircraft lands after an FAA test flight at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, in June 2020.
Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images
The Federal Aviation Administration said it is closely monitoring inspections of Boeing's 737 Max planes after the plane's manufacturer asked airlines to check for loose bolts in the rudder control system.
Boeing recommended the inspections after an undisclosed international carrier discovered a bolt with a missing nut while performing routine maintenance, the agency said Thursday. The company also discovered an additional undelivered aircraft with an improperly tightened nut.
“The identified issue with the identified aircraft has been remedied,” Boeing said in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, we recommend that operators inspect their 737 MAX aircraft and report any findings to us,” he added.
Boeing says it has delivered more than 1,370 737 MAX aircraft globally. United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, and Alaska Airlines are among the U.S. airlines with aircraft in their fleets.
No in-service incidents were attributed to lost or lost hardware, according to Boeing.
The company estimated that the inspections – which it recommended would be completed within the next two weeks – would take about two hours per aircraft. She added that she believes the planes can continue to fly safely.
This problem is the latest in a series of safety concerns to haunt the plane.
In a five-month period between October 2018 and March 2019, two Boeing 737 Max plane crashes killed 346 people. The FAA then grounded the plane for 20 months, and the disaster ultimately cost the company more than $20 billion.
Investigators found that both crashes were caused in part by a faulty automated flight control system called MCAS.
Loose bolts and the need for inspections fall into a different category than an MCAS disaster, says Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aviation consultancy Aerodynamic Advisory.
“The latter was a design issue, not a manufacturing defect,” he told NPR.
“The problem here is relatively insignificant, but it does indicate that serious problems continue at the production level, both at Boeing and with its suppliers.”
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