Emergency Inspections On Newest 737s

The government ordered inspections Saturday of the latest generation of Boeing 737s flying worldwide to see if any have potentially defective flight control modules that could make the planes hard to control.

The Federal Aviation Administration's emergency order, which covers 737s in the 737-600 through 900 series that were produced since May 21, gives airlines 10 days to complete the review. Most of the 93 aircraft are in service, but some may be still at Boeing, FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto said.

Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdier said the company detected the problem earlier this month in production ground and flight tests, and alerted the FAA and customers. The company figures as many as 70 planes produced since May 21 should be checked for faulty modules, she said.

Each plane has two modules that control hydraulic fluid to the flight control system. A failure of both modules could significantly affect a plane's flight control systems by almost jamming the controls, making the jetliner sluggish and very difficult to operate, Takemoto said.

"Basically you can fly with one failed module," Verdier said. With two out, "they feel heavier ... It's like power steering, kind of."

It is considered a safety flight issue, she said, attributing the problem to the manufacturer. She declined to say which airlines had taken delivery of the planes - Boeing does not disclose such information - but said the company had sent notices to all its customers, in and out of the United States.

Takemoto said the airworthiness order requires carriers to check the serial numbers before flying again and replace modules with the suspect serial numbers. The FAA has no jurisdiction over foreign carriers, but they almost always follow its recommendations.

To check the modules, "You just have to look up into the wheel well and check the serial number," Takemoto said.

The FAA said it's looking for a recent batch of modules that has a high rate of failure. Fifteen modules were found to be defective, four while in flight and 11 during inspections on the ground, Takemoto said. None caused an accident, he said.

Not all the planes produced since May 21 have failed modules, Verdier said - "They have suspect modules."

There are 84 foreign aircraft with modules from the bad batch and nine U.S. carriers, Takemoto said, but not all have been delivered. He also said some of those already delivered may not yet be in service.

Three foreign airlines reported Saturday they already had acted on Boeing's warnings about the possibly defective parts. Australia's two main carriers, Qantas and Virgin Blue, said they had grounded eight Boeing 737-800s to exchange the parts. At least seven flights were canceled. In Ireland, the budget carrier Ryanair grounded two 737s overnight for the repairs and returned them to the fleet Saturday.

A spokesman for the company that made the modules, European-based Smiths Aerospace, had no immediate comment on the FAA order.

James McKenna, managing editor of Aviation Maintenance magazine, said the airplanes are probably built so that if all of the flight control modules break, the pilot still has some mechanical physical control of the airplane.

"Still," he said, "there's a possibility that this could lead to a crash."

Seventy-eight of the 93 aircraft with possibly faulty modules have two of the modules on them, Takemoto said.