FAA Warns Crews About Problems with Boeing 787 Airspeed Data
Jeff Edwards April 01, 2016
The FAA has adopted an airworthiness directive effective on April 1, warning pilots not to react suddenly if instruments indicate a possibly erroneous drop in airspeed.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has taken the rare step of adopting an immediate airworthiness directive without the normal review period, which will require changes in Boeing 787 flight manuals. The warning will alert 787 flight crews not to make “large, abrupt control column inputs” in reaction to an “unrealistic” drop in airspeed on the instrument panel display. A similar FAA recommendation issued on March 4 will be mandatory as of April 1.
According Flight Global, the directive follows three reports of the displayed airspeed on Boeing 787s dropping significantly below the actual airspeed of the aircraft. It is feared that if pilots try to correct the incorrectly displayed airspeed by putting the plane into a dive, the results could “exceed the structural limits of the 787.”
While the cause of the erroneous instrument readings has not yet been determined, in each of the three instances weather was believed to have been a contributing factor. According to the FAA, “The 787 was flying in conditions involving significant water ingestion and possibly icing of two of the three pitot tubes feeding speed and altitude information to the air data system.”
The FAA airworthiness directive for Boeing 787 aircraft comes as the Russian government is said to be considering suspending the airworthiness certificates of all Boeing 737 aircraft in the wake of the crash of a FlyDubai 737-800 at the Rostov-on-Don Airport (ROV) in Russia during severe weather. So far, there has been no indication that mechanical failure contributed to the accident.
[Photo: Boeing]
