Qantas Grounds Three Cracked Boeing 737 Jets
October 31 2019 - 9:06PM
Dow Jones News
By Alison Sider
Qantas Airways Ltd. became the latest airline to ground some
older Boeing Co. 737s for structural cracks, another headache for
the plane maker grappling with the global grounding of the newer
MAX model.
Qantas Airways said it found three aircraft with hairline cracks
in the "pickle fork," a component located between the plane's wing
and fuselage. The Australian airline said it accelerated its checks
and finished precautionary inspections of the 33 planes that
required examination. The three affected planes have been taken out
of service for repair. The carrier's main airline unit had 75
Boeing 737s as of June.
Boeing notified the Federal Aviation Administration of the
potential issue after detecting cracks in this component on three
737-800s it was converting to freighters. The FAA earlier in
October mandated urgent structural inspections of Boeing 737 NG
models that had completed more than 30,000 takeoff and landing
cycles, along with subsequent checks and repairs, as necessary, of
other NG jets that had flown 22,600 cycles.
The potential cracks "could adversely affect the structural
integrity of the airplane and result in loss of control," according
to the FAA's directive.
Qantas said it would work to minimize any customer impact.
Boeing didn't immediately respond to request for comment
Thursday. The plane maker previously has said cracking was
identified on about 5% of the 686 planes that had been inspected as
of Oct. 9. The company said in a securities filing last week that
inspections have been completed on all of the planes that have
completed more than 30,000 cycles and about a third of the other
planes specified in the FAA's order.
While the cracking has affected a relatively small number of
planes, it represents another problem for carriers that already are
contending with a reduced fleet due to the grounding of the 737
MAX. The MAX has been grounded around the world since March in the
wake of two fatal accidents.
Brazilian carrier GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes had to ground
11 jets after discovering cracking, it said earlier in October. The
airline said Thursday that 3% of customers who were scheduled to
travel between Oct. 10 and Dec. 15 were re-accommodated as a result
and that all maintenance will be finished within 45 days.
Southwest Airlines Co. also took three planes out of service for
repair after performing its inspections, a spokeswoman said. The
airline, which has a fleet of around 750 planes, has finished
inspecting the aircraft covered by the FAA's directive and said it
decided to continue looking at all of its NG models. Southwest said
it is working with Boeing on repairs and doesn't have a timeline
for when the three affected planes will return to service.
Aviation consultant IBA Group estimated repairs could cost up to
$275,000 a plane with as many as 2,500 aircraft being
inspected.
Less than a handful of U.S. planes are affected, according to
the FAA. Other U.S. carriers including American Airlines Group
Inc., United Airlines Holdings Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. have
said they haven't found any cracking on the planes the planes they
have inspected so far.
--Mike Cherney, Doug Cameron and Andy Pasztor contributed to
this article.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 31, 2019 21:51 ET (01:51 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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