After an incident in March involving a Chilean LATAM Airlines jet that abruptly lost altitude, injuring over 50 people, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that it would inspect Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
The autopilot system was accidentally disabled because the captain’s seat pushed forward and touched a switch. The jet, which was en route to New Zealand from Australia, plummeted around 400 feet in a matter of seconds before the co-pilot took over.
Boeing advised airlines to check the 787 cockpit chairs for loose switch caps and provided instructions on how to disable the motorized seats immediately after the incident.
Two cases are still under investigation, and the FAA has received five complaints of comparable issues with the captain’s and first officer’s chairs on 787s, the last of which was in June.
Aircraft types 787-10, 787-9, and 787-8 are affected by an FAA airworthiness directive that mandates, within 30 days, an inspection of the captain’s and first officer’s seats for cracked or missing switch cover assemblies or rocker switch caps. This directive affects 158 aircraft registered in the United States and 737 aircraft registered worldwide. If problems are identified, airlines must take the appropriate measures to fix them.
According to the FAA, if an occupied seat slides horizontally uncontrollably, the aircraft may drop quickly, causing crew and passenger injuries or deaths. The safety directive will impact 138 aircraft registered in the US.
In a separate development, Boeing said that it has grounded the 777-9 test planes that are still waiting for certification. This decision was made after a maintenance inspection that revealed a malfunctioning element within the engine and the airplane’s frame.
Recently, during a flight test of the 777-9, Boeing notified the FAA that it had found a defective component. Boeing obtained Type Inspection Authorization in July of this year so they could finally start flying the 777-9 with FAA inspectors on board for certification. Boeing elaborated by saying the component is unique to the 777-9 and that no more flight testing involving the other test aircraft is in the works for the foreseeable future.
