Boeing is expanding examination of 787 Dreamliners after finding more widespread manufacturing quality defects; they were initially thought to be confined to the aircraft’s aft fuselage plant in South Carolina.
This now prompts inspections at 787 component plants worldwide, including Wichita.
Reviews are underway at Boeing’s adjacent mid-fuselage plant in North Charleston, S.C., at the Spirit AeroSystems forward fuselage plant in Wichita, and at plants owned by Leonardo in Italy and Kawasaki in Japan that produce smaller fuselage sections.
Boeing is also inspecting every undelivered 787 on the two final assembly lines in North Charleston, and in Everett, Washington.
The stoppage of 787 production halt what was an already slow delivery rate because of the pandemic.
The flaw can create gaps potentially weakening the structure of the fuselage. Analysis shows the fuselage is still strong enough even with this defect to carry the maximum load the plane is expected to encounter, but for full compliance with regulations, airliners have to meet a higher standard of 1.5 times that load.
The company says the defect is “not an immediate safety concern”, and federal regulators agree; airplanes already delivered to airlines can be inspected at their next scheduled maintenance check and repaired if necessary.
The problem was first reported Monday by the Wall Street Journal, explaining why 787 deliveries were stopped last month.