“We will have to rework around 50 planes”: why the delivery of Boeing 737 MAX will be postponed ?

Un Boeing 737 de la compagnie Ryanair (photo d'illustration). Olaf Schulz/Newscom – MaxPPP

Boeing a déclaré dimanche 4 février 2024 qu'il allait effectuer des travaux supplémentaires sur une cinquantaine d'appareils 737 MAX n'ayant pas encore été livrés.

Boeing said its additional work should cause deliveries to be postponed in the short term, after its supplier Spirit AeroSystems discovered two poorly drilled holes in the fuselage.

The aircraft manufacturer confirmed this information in response to a question from Reuters, which learned from industry sources that a spacing problem had been discovered in holes drilled into a window frame. He said, however, that the safety of the aircraft was not affected and that current 737 planes could continue to fly.

Approximately 50 undelivered aircraft will be reworked

In a letter to staff, Boeing's civil aircraft division general manager Stan Deal said a supplier notified the group last Thursday of a compliance issue in certain fuselages of 737.

"If this does not constitute an immediate flight safety issue and all 737s can continue to operate safely, we believe that we will have to rework about 50 undelivered planes", he wrote.

The inspections are focusing on the potentially incorrect positioning of two holes in a window frame assembled by Spirit, industry sources said.

Qualitative defect

A qualitative defect has so far been found in 22 fuselages, or nearly half of the 47 aircraft inspected at that time in the production line between Boeing and Spirit, these sources specified, adding that this defect could be present on certain 737 aircraft in service.

The information communicated by Stan Deal to Boeing employees suggests that inspections are progressing quickly and that the problem only affects a minority of the hundreds of fuselages in production. If such notifications between an aircraft manufacturer and its supplier are common, this problem occurs in a context of increased surveillance of the 737 MAX.