The American Transportation Safety Agency (NTSB) issued “urgent safety recommendations” on Thursday regarding the rudder system of some Boeing 737s, due to the risk of blocking or impeding part of the device.
This recommendation follows an incident that occurred on February 6 in a Boeing 737 MAX 8 of the American company United Airlines, whose rudder pedals became stuck in the neutral position while taxiing on the runway after landing at Newark Airport, near from New York.
The captain had to use the front landing gear controls to control the direction of the plane, which was not damaged, the NTSB explains in a statement, specifying that none of the 155 passengers and crew members were injured.
A defective seal that allows gel to pass through.
The equipment in question, a guidance actuator manufactured by the American company Collins Aerospace (a subsidiary of RTX), was found to contain a defective component: a poorly installed gasket in the assembly allowed the infiltration of moisture that, under certain circumstances, can freeze and thus limit the movements of the rudder device, the press release continues.
Collins informed Boeing that more than 353 actuators delivered since February 2017 contained this defect. They were installed on the tail fin of certain 737 NG and 737 MAX, the current version of the 737 family. United is the only US carrier to have taken delivery of aircraft with this defect, and none are believed to be in service to date.
Still, the Federal Aviation Administration, the regulator of American civil aviation, must determine whether these faulty actuators should be removed from aircraft still in operation. It said in a separate statement that it had been following the NTSB investigation “closely” and had planned a meeting for Friday to “determine next steps.”
Several cases of failures.
Boeing has been under close surveillance by the FAA since an in-flight incident on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 in early January. It has revived doubts about the quality and compliance of its production, already questioned after the crash of two 737 MAX 8s in 2018 and 2019, which left 346 dead, and then due to a series of manufacturing problems throughout 2023.
Among other consequences, the group’s management was reorganized in March and a new boss, Kelly Ortberg, arrived on August 8. The latter led Rockwell Collins from 2013 to 2018, which became Collins Aerospace after its acquisition by United Technologies in November 2018.
Source: BFM TV
