Boeing Finds Debris in Fuel Tanks of Undelivered MAX Jets
February 18 2020 - 7:19PM
Dow Jones News
By Doug Cameron
Boeing Co. said Tuesday that it had found debris in the fuel
tanks of undelivered 737 MAX jetliners, the latest setback in the
plane maker's efforts to address quality control problems.
The debris was found in an undisclosed number of jets parked at
facilities in Washington state and Texas, where planes have been
stored since a global ban on commercial MAX flights was imposed
following two crashes that killed 346 people.
The company has stored the planes awaiting approval from
regulators to restart MAX flying after changes to the plane's
flight control software and training regimes, which it has said
could occur by midyear.
Boeing said the debris was discovered during "routine"
inspections, but didn't detail how many planes were affected, or
when they rolled off the production line. The problem was first
revealed on leeham.net, an aviation news site.
Boeing said it is inspecting all 400 undelivered MAX jets and
intensifying efforts to prevent a recurrence of debris problems
that have already bedeviled some 787 Dreamliners and KC-46A
military refueling tankers produced at separate factories.
Each undelivered MAX jet has a team assigned to maintain it as
well as 385 more that were in operation before last year's
grounding. Boeing halted production of new jets last month.
The company said it had instituted new practices and inspections
to prevent so-called foreign object debris, or FOD, incidents at
its Renton factory near Seattle. where the MAX is produced.
"FOD is absolutely unacceptable," said 737 General Manager Mark
Jenks in a message to employees released by Boeing. "One escape is
one too many."
Boeing said it has been using the halt in MAX assembly to
improve its production processes, diverting 3,000 assembly workers
and hundreds of other staff to prepare its lines for a restart, as
well as to other aircraft programs.
However, the discovery of debris in undelivered jets follows
similar crackdowns to improve quality control at plants producing
other jets.
Boeing twice had to halt deliveries of the KC-46A to the U.S.
Air Force after debris, including tools and rags, was found in
planes after they had been delivered from its Everett factory north
of Seattle. The Air Force started accepting planes again, but has
been withholding some payments because of ongoing design problems
that leave them short of being fully operational.
"We've seen issues across Boeing but the Everett facility, I
would say, is the most advanced of those," Air Force procurement
chief Will Roper said in an interview last June.
Unwanted debris was also found last year on some Dreamliners,
which are produced in Everett and at a factory in South Charleston,
S.C.
Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 18, 2020 19:04 ET (00:04 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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