{"id":5330,"date":"2024-03-21T15:08:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T07:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=5330"},"modified":"2024-03-21T15:08:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T07:08:25","slug":"faa-wants-inspections-of-boeing-max-planes-for-wiring-flaw-that-could-lead-to-loss-of-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=5330","title":{"rendered":"FAA wants inspections of Boeing Max planes for wiring flaw that could lead to ‘loss of control’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In December 2021, the flight crew of a 737 Max 8 jet descending on autopilot from the skies somewhere over the United States momentarily lost control when it \u201crolled violently to the right\u201d without warning, the plane\u2019s captain recounted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first officer acted fast, disengaging the autopilot, and recovered control of the airplane \u2014 all within about a second. The plane landed safely with no other problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unidentified plane\u2019s sudden uncommanded bank, at an angle of about 30 degrees, was enough to prompt the captain to submit a report to the Aviation Safety Reporting System, a NASA-run repository shared confidentially among front-line aviation personnel worldwide and available publicly with identifying details removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the report, the pilot wrote that a control panel warning lit up during the incident, signaling a problem with the airplane\u2019s left-wing spoiler \u2014 a hinged plate on top of the wing that can be lifted to cause drag and slow the aircraft. It wasn\u2019t the first time the problem had happened, the captain added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis exact scenario was previously written up in the logbook multiple times in the preceding days,\u201d the captain noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2021 incident bears striking similarities to ones that prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to propose a rule last week to require that operators inspect the wings of about 207 737 Max airplanes in the U.S. for wiring damage within three years. It\u2019s another in a string of manufacturing and quality control troubles to emerge publicly that have haunted the 737 Max line, thrusting Boeing into crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Details from the report that described the spoiler problem 27 months ago haven\u2019t previously been reported. Neither have details in two \u201cservice difficulty reports\u201d about incidents in two planes that were submitted to the FAA in December 2021 and November 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All three reports, which aviation experts reviewed for NBC News, appear to closely correspond with what the FAA publicly identified in its proposal last week as an \u201cunsafe condition\u201d that could result in a \u201closs of control\u201d of certain Boeing 737 Max jets because of \u201cnonconforming\u201d installation of spoiler control wires. Two of the three reports noted an uncommanded rightward roll, coupled with the spoiler warning light. The third didn\u2019t involve a roll, but it described issues similar to what the FAA says is \u201cthe root\u201d of the problem described in its proposal: chafing of the wires controlling the spoiler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FAA proposed rule, known as an airworthiness directive, cites a single report about one airplane that experienced \u201cmultiple unusual deployments\u201d of spoilers during several flights, adding that an investigation found spoiler wire bundles became chafed because of contact with the aircraft\u2019s internal wing structure. It said the condition is \u201clikely to exist or develop on other products of the same type design.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FAA\u2019s move comes eight months after Boeing sent a service bulletin in July to operators of about 860 potentially affected 737 Max-8 and -9s worldwide, providing them with instructions to perform voluntary inspections of wire bundles in their fleets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boeing first notified operators about the potential spoiler issue in May 2022, and it \u201cdeveloped a solution\u201d in the Max production line in June 2022 that addressed the problem on new planes, spokesperson Jessica Kowal told NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The steps Boeing has taken and the FAA\u2019s rulemaking process demonstrate that \u201cthis is not an immediate safety-of-flight issue,\u201d Kowal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But four aviation experts \u2014 a former Boeing 737 factory manager, two retired FAA safety engineers and an ex-airline captain who flew 737s \u2014 said in interviews that they believe the problem is serious and requires more urgent attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s extremely significant, and I think Boeing and the FAA are not putting sufficient priority on it,\u201d said Joe Jacobsen, a retired FAA engineer who has served as a technical expert to Congress and as an FAA technical representative on National Transportation Safety Board accident investigations. \u201cIt should be inspected as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FAA declined to answer questions about its proposal for this article, saying in a statement only that it bases its \u201ccompliance times on the risk from the issue that\u2019s being addressed.\u201d The agency said it will \u201cconsider all relevant public comments\u201d through late April before it finalizes the proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captain John Cox, a former commercial airline pilot and founder of an aviation safety consultancy, said the problem demonstrates \u201cyet another case where an airplane got out of the factory with a defect or an improperly executed task and it wasn\u2019t picked up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat, in light of the other issues that we\u2019ve seen recently from Boeing, is the most concerning to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it still faces legal and reputational fallout from two Max crashes that killed 346 people five years ago, Boeing came under new scrutiny this year after a panel blew out of a 737 Max 9 and left a gaping hole mid-cabin during a crowded Alaska Airlines flight in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incident prompted the FAA to temporarily ground some models of the plane and issue an emergency airworthiness directive requiring immediate inspections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, Kowal said, the spoiler issue \u201chas been identified as a safety issue longer-term,” giving operators up to three years to inspect the planes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kowal declined to answer questions about exactly when Boeing first learned of the issue or provide details about the aircraft that prompted internal analysis of the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boeing isn\u2019t sure how many operators have already voluntarily performed inspections, Kowal said. At least one, SunExpress Airlines, has submitted a comment to the FAA seeking credit for having already performed the voluntary inspections once the proposal becomes mandated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis issue isn\u2019t new or an emergency,\u201d Kowal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But until the FAA published its proposal along with Boeing\u2019s July service bulletin last week, the public knew nothing about the matter, said Ed Pierson, a former manager of Boeing\u2019s 737 factory who now heads the nonprofit advocacy group Foundation for Aviation Safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe FAA is just now reporting it,\u201d Pierson said. \u201cNot even reporting it \u2014 we\u2019re learning about it through a federal rule-making process \u2026 under the guise of informing the public.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou would think people would want to know,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cox, the former commercial airline pilot, said he believes most trained commercial airline pilots confronted with such a rogue spoiler deployment in flight could overcome the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can see places where it would be fairly serious, you know, like in the process of landing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut 737s have so much roll control. It\u2019s one of the real strengths of that jet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An uncommanded spoiler deployment \u201ccould make for a hard landing or something like that if it happened at the exact wrong time,\u201d he added. \u201cBut that window is really short. It could be a handful, but I think that it would be controllable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cox said he believes the FAA proposal calling for inspections of hundreds of Maxes is the appropriate way to address the problem. But he added it\u2019s surprising how long it took Boeing, and then the FAA, to address the issue after they learned about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAny time you have an uncommanded flight control movement, it\u2019s serious,\u201d Cox said. \u201cSo for something like this, I would like to think they\u2019d move faster than that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about the time it took Boeing to respond, Kowal said that in general, when an issue is reported in the fleet, an engineering analysis is conducted to identify a root cause and determine safety implications and production issues. All of that takes time, she said. The FAA then has its own regulatory pace and process, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specific to the spoiler issue, Kowal said: \u201cThe chafing happens at a very slow rate; this was identified in the fleet on one airplane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But one of the reports NBC News reviewed suggests that wire chafing occurred on a relatively new plane, and states that it might have happened during production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kowal didn\u2019t address the specific reports identified by NBC News for this story, saying only that \u201cany issue that Boeing becomes aware of is assessed from a safety perspective with the FAA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Dostert, a retired FAA engineer who has studied wiring problems that caused airplane accidents, said wire wear rates are unpredictable because of a host of variables that can occur during installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my experience, it\u2019s not an exact science,\u201d said Dostert, who wrote multiple airworthiness directives during his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey need to get these things fixed quickly,\u201d he added. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be taking long times, especially years, to address potentially catastrophic, unsafe conditions. Why take the chance?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In December 2021, the flight crew of a 737 Max 8 jet descending on autopilot from the skies somewhere over the United States momentarily lost control when it \u201crolled violently to the right\u201d without warning, the plane\u2019s captain recounted. The first officer acted fast, disengaging the autopilot, and recovered control of the airplane \u2014 all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2243,2245,2244],"class_list":["post-5330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","tag-faa","tag-inspections","tag-wants"],"yoast_head":"\nFAA wants inspections of Boeing Max planes for wiring flaw that could lead to 'loss of control' - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=5330\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FAA wants inspections of Boeing Max planes for wiring flaw that could lead to 'loss of control' - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In December 2021, the flight crew of a 737 Max 8 jet descending on autopilot from the skies somewhere over the United States momentarily lost control when it \u201crolled violently to the right\u201d without warning, the plane\u2019s captain recounted. 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