[Fair use for education and research purpose only]

Title: Another Aircraft Assembly Glitch Hits Boeing

Story Filed: Wednesday, April 12, 2000 7:36 PM EST

Apr. 12 (The News Tribune/KRTBN)--For the seventh time in as many months, a minor but embarrassing production blunder has put The Boeing Co.'s Commercial Airplane Group in an unfavorable light.

This time it involved nuts that a factory worker forgot to tighten.

If one of those nuts had worked its way off a bolt linked to the horizontal stabilizer of a Next Generation 737 airplane, the pilot could have lost control of the aircraft on takeoff or landing, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

To make sure that doesn't happen, the FAA earlier this week ordered the owners of 294 U.S.-registered 737-600, -700 and -800 models to inspect their planes and to tighten any loose bolts.

Another 188 Next Generation 737s are operated by foreign carriers not subject to FAA rules, but they are expected to follow suit.

As of Tuesday, with 333 inspections completed, Boeing said that airlines had reported finding nine airplanes with loose nuts on bolts that link the elevator to a small motor that moves the elevator up or down.

The elevator is the moving portion of the wing-like horizontal stabilizer, part of an airplane's tail assembly. It helps control nose-up and nose-down movements during landings and takeoffs.

Mitch Barker, an FAA spokesman at the agency's regional headquarters in Renton, discounted the safety risk posed by the loose nuts.

"There are other bolts on the (tail) that are redundant to the (parts) in question," Barker said. "This is not critical to the safety of the aircraft. It is not going to result in the (tail) falling off."

But it further sullied Boeing's reputation for quality control at a time when the FAA already is raising questions about the number of production glitches discovered at Boeing since September.

Those include:

-- Improperly tightened bolts that attach the vertical stabilizer, or

fin, to the fuselage of 767s were discovered in September on one in-service plane and on others still in the Everett factory.

-- An adhesive being improperly applied to a condensation barrier that keeps moisture from dripping onto cockpit electronics was discovered in November, and further investigation showed the drip shields did not meet flammability standards, prompting Boeing to briefly halt delivery of about 50 airplanes while the part was replaced.

-- Inspections in November also showed that the adhesive in some air ducts used in airplane cabins did not meet flammability standards, requiring modifications to hundreds of in-service airplanes of various models.

-- In December, the company discovered a subcontractor had been improperly applying an anti-corrosion coating to the inside of fuel tank access doors. The botched job caused the corrosion inhibitor inside the tanks to flake and contaminate the fuel. Hundreds of airplanes may need work, but Boeing is still trying to determine how best to deal with the problem.

-- Early last month, the company said another supplier disclosed that a number of shipments of fasteners did not meet specifications, slowing deliveries and causing replacement work on about 20 in-service planes.

-- And late in March, an Everett factory worker discovered a crack in wing component being installed on a 767-300. After investigating, the company concluded the crack resulted from one of its aluminum suppliers, Alcoa, having improperly heat-treated the metal. The component was replaced on 16 airplanes in the final stages of assembly or awaiting delivery, and Boeing is still deciding what to tell the airlines that operate the 40 other 767-300s flying with the out-of-specification part.

"It's true that we've had multiple quality escapes lately, and we've already begun some long-term corrective action programs," said Shannon Myers, a Boeing spokeswoman.

An investigation into the loose nut on the 737, for example, revealed that company procedure had required that a mechanic tighten the nut but had not required an inspector to verify the job had been done. That procedure has been changed so now an inspector must "buy off" on the job, Myers said.

To help ensure high-quality materials from its suppliers, Boeing last week said it was requiring its two major aluminum providers, Alcoa and Kaiser, to sample and verify the quality of their products more often and more stringently.

So far, the production problems appear to be isolated in nature, Myers said. The elevator nuts were assembled at Boeing's Renton plant, while the 767 wing assembly problem came from a supplier in Texas and the improperly built drip shields were made at Boeing's Spokane plant.

In late November, in efforts to ensure that the foul-ups were not part of a system-wide problem, the FAA and Boeing announced separate but simultaneous audits of the company's production and quality-control systems.

"In essence, we are going to be checking that the design is appropriately reflected in manufacturing planning ... so that the resulting product meets its design specifications," said Beth Erickson, head of aircraft certification for the FAA, when the government probe was announced.

She described Boeing's factory floor problems as "slips in different areas of the production system," adding, "The inspections will help us understand the root causes better and, more importantly, they will help us understand if the issues are more systemic in nature."

Barker, the FAA spokesman, said his agency's inspection team would certainly look into these more-recent mishaps and consider them in making a final report. That report is due out this summer, he said.

By Mike Maharry

To see more of The News Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tribnet.com

(c) 2000, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

http://library.northernlight.com/FD20000412130000185.html?cb=200&dx=2006&sc=0#doc

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 12, 2000

Answers

They are blaming all of this on nuts a factory worker forgot to tighten?

Nuts!

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), April 12, 2000.

A mechanic was to tighten the nut, but now they have decided that they must add an inspector to make sure the nut was tightened. Hard to believe.

What ever happened to Boeing, once the Rolls Royce of commercial aircraft?

-- Wellesley (wellesley@freeport.net), April 13, 2000.

Improperly heat treated metal components by Alcoa--did anybody catch that?

The supply chain scenario of y2k spelled out in the biggest companies having the first showable problems, because of the large numbers of vendors used. Is this happening here, with all these Boeing problems?

I know a man who retired after a 40-year career as an office forms salesman. In all that time his ENTIRE career was built upon servicing but ONE customer: Boeing. A company this huge must have tens of thousands of suppliers. How few would it take, delivering faulty parts, to make a dent?

-- JackW (jpayne@webtv.net), April 13, 2000.