The Federal Aviation Administration orders inspections after a mid-air crash blamed on the random movement of the pilots' seats.
U.S. aviation regulators have ordered airlines to conduct inspections of hundreds of Boeing 787 Dreamliners after a sudden mid-air plunge during a flight in March injured dozens of passengers.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Monday that the captain's and first officer's seats on certain 787-7, 787-9 and 787-10 aircraft must be inspected “for missing or cracked rocker switch covers and cracked or nonfunctional switch cover assemblies” within 30 days.
“Operators must also take all necessary corrective actions,” the FAA said in a statement.
The FAA directive affects 158 U.S.-registered aircraft and 737 aircraft worldwide, the regulator said.
The airworthiness directive (AD) comes after Chile's aviation authority said earlier this year that preliminary investigations into the March 11 incident showed the captain's seat experienced an “involuntary forward movement” during the flight.
About 50 passengers were injured when LATAM Flight 800 suddenly plunged 400 feet (120 meters) while en route to Auckland, New Zealand, from Sydney, Australia.
In its directive, the FAA said that “uncommanded horizontal movement” of the captain’s and first officer’s seats during LATAM Flight 800 had “caused control column input to disengage the autopilot, resulting in a rapid descent until the first officer took control of the flight.”
The FAA received four additional reports about the Boeing problem after the incident, the most recent of which was in June, the regulator said.
“Uncontrolled horizontal movement of an occupied seat can cause in-flight disruption due to unexpected and abrupt flight control movements, which could result in a rapid descent of the airplane and serious injury to passengers and crew,” the FAA said.
“The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition of these products.”
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The directive is the latest in a series of incidents that have drawn attention to safety problems at Boeing.
Last month, Boeing finalized a deal to plead guilty to fraud after U.S. prosecutors concluded the company violated a deferred prosecution agreement over two fatal crashes of the 737 Max passenger jet in 2018 and 2019.
The Arlington, Virginia-based aerospace giant also faces a separate criminal investigation over a January incident during which a 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines lost part of its fuselage in flight.
