US regulator orders inspection of pilot seats on hundreds of Boeing 787s

And now, the pilots’ seats. After being confronted with several malfunctions on its aircraft, for which it was blamed, the aircraft manufacturer Boeing will now see hundreds of its 787 models inspected at the cockpit seat level, due to an incident that occurred during a flight of the Chilean airline Latam, which had left around fifty passengers injured.

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The US civil aviation regulator (FAA) requested these inspections on Monday, August 19, after a report that a “uncontrolled forward movement of the captain’s seat which resulted in a rapid descent” of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that was flying from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand on March 11, a statement said. Passengers who were not wearing seat belts were thrown into the ceiling after the plane’s sudden loss of altitude.

Since the incident, four other occurrences of “uncontrolled horizontal movements” pilot or co-pilot seats have been reported by Boeing to the FAA, the FAA said. In three of those cases, the adjustment levers on the seat were too “cowards”.

More than 730 models inspected worldwide

A movement “unintentional and prolonged siege” may cause manipulation “unintentional and abrupt flight control input, which could result in a rapid descent of the aircraft and serious injury to passengers and flight crew”the FAA explains to justify its directive.

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Some 158 aircraft registered in the United States are affected by this airworthiness directive, and 737 worldwide, the FAA specifies.

The series of black events involving Boeing aircraft – the fatal accidents of two poorly designed 737 Max in 2018 and 2019 and the tearing off of a door plug, whose bolts had not been tightened on an Alaska Airlines aircraft in early January, among others – have for several months raised doubts about the quality controls of the American aircraft manufacturer, whose new CEO, Robert Kelly Ortberg, officially took the reins on August 8.

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The World with AFP

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