US airlines have been ordered to inspect more than 1,000 of Boeing 737s for potentially faulty parts that could result in pilots losing control of the aircraft.
The US Federal Aviation Administration has issued an airworthiness directive that requires airlines to carry out inspections of certain components on the 737’s tail plane, said the Financial Times.
The regulator acted because of concerns that pins used to attach the aircraft’s horizontal stabiliser – also known as the tail plane – could break because these components did not have an adequate anticorrosive coating.
The FAA order affects several versions of the 737, including the more recent 737-800 and 737-900 models, and the regulator estimated that the cost of inspecting the aircraft and replacing defective pins could be $10m.
However, the airlines don’t need to take immediate action because the directive requires inspections of the 737 after 56,000 flights.
