After Scary Mid-Air Dive, 895 Boeing Planes Must Be Inspected

FAA has issued an airworthiness directive related to 787 Dreamliners
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 21, 2024 1:31 AM CDT
FAA Orders 895 Potentially 'Unsafe' Boeing Planes Inspected
FILE - The Boeing 787 Dreamliner taxis after its landing at Le Bourget airport, east of Paris, upon its presentation for the first time at the 49th Paris Air Show at the airport, June 21, 2011.   (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

Following a terrifying mid-air dive in March that left more than 50 people injured on a flight from Australia to New Zealand, the Federal Aviation Administration has ordered inspections of the aircraft involved in the LATAM Airlines incident. Nearly 900 Boeing 787 Dreamliners must be inspected within the next 30 days, NBC News reports. Of those, 158 are registered in the US and the other 737 are registered in other countries. The FAA says the cause of the March incident was the captain's seat in the cockpit jerking forward and disconnecting the autopilot system, and that four other similar incidents involving the "uncommanded movement" of captain's seats or first officer seats have been reported, Reuters reports.

All five of those incidents also took place on Boeing 787 Dreamliners, and the most recent report is from a June flight. In three of the incidents, loose rocker switch caps on the backs of the seats were identified as the cause; the other two incidents remain under investigation. The FAA has thus issued an airworthiness directive due to the seats' "unsafe conditions." Boeing says officials at the company "fully support" the move, which is just the latest in a series of problems for the firm. (More Boeing stories.)

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