Newsstand - Boeing Issues Directive On Thousands Of Jets

http://www.koat.com/news/13986079/detail.html?treets=alb&tml=alb_natlbreak&ts=T&tmi=a

The Boeing Co. said Monday it was issuing an emergency air worthiness directive for 783 domestically registered airplanes.

It looks like the directive is for all 737 Next Generation (-600, -700, -800, -900 and -900ER) aircraft.

According to CNN this morning, Boeing had previously issued a Service Bulletin for this bolt-coming-loose-and-piercing-the-fuel-tank problem. After the CI 120 fire on the 737-800 in Okinawa, the FAA made this an Emergency Airworthiness Directive, with carriers given 24 days to comply. This AD is second in seriousness only to a grounding of the fleet.

Now, I realize that some could still point the finger of blame at CI for not finding the apparently loose bolt during inspections (but who knows how long it was loose?), though a perhaps better measure of whether CI maintenance was a problem would be whether it complied with the Service Bulletin.

But I think everyone who so immediately dumped on CI as the deadliest airline in Asia needs to give some serious thought to whether the fire on CI 120 originated with a design problem.

(I would have posted this in the CI 120 fire thread, but this thread regarding the AD was started by someone else separately, and my post is most germane to the AD.)

Now, I realize that some could still point the finger of blame at CI for not finding the apparently loose bolt during inspections (but who knows how long it was loose?), though a perhaps better measure of whether CI maintenance was a problem would be whether it complied with the Service Bulletin.

But I think everyone who so immediately dumped on CI as the deadliest airline in Asia needs to give some serious thought to whether the fire on CI 120 originated with a design problem.

(disclaimer: information below is extracted from a newspaper and since the investigation is still going on, the story may change. Please don't jump to conclusion. I'm paying my attention to this investigation because my local airline which I use most - CO - has bunch of them and could be affected by the outcome of investigation.)

According to a Japanese newspaper, CI did a maintenance service to this aircraft's slats, checked the bolt in question on July 6th, 2007, based on the Service Bulletin from Boeing issued on March 2006.
Investigators suspect that they might have forgot to replace a washer at that time, resulted a bolt with nut slipped out of the hole.

(disclaimer: information below is extracted from a newspaper and since the investigation is still going on, the story may change. Please don't jump to conclusion. I'm paying my attention to this investigation because my local airline which I use most - CO - has bunch of them and could be affected by the outcome of investigation.)Same here - my preferred domestic fleet (Jet Airways - 9W) uses exclusively 737's for flights in India...but I haven't been flying domestically, luckily I guess!

I wonder how they're handling it...

I'm now flying to CMB on SQ via SIN, the long way round...and getting there earlier than on 9w...although I won't get much sleep...

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200708310277.html

ANK is a regional carrier of NH, and the aircraft is -700.