Originally Posted by
WillTravel4Food
This is a normal event in the world of aircraft manufacturing. A part ages/fails along a line different from the designed path, and that results in an Airworthiness Directive being published to remedy the issue. This is the system detecting what the system was designed to detect.
The process of inspection, finding faults, and providing fixes certainly might be normal, but a part that was designed to last the lifetime of a plan showing signs of failure 1/3rd of the way - that doesn't seem normal. Obviously I'm not thinking wings are going to start snapping off planes any time soon and I"m not at all worried about flying on a 737NG.
I was just more thinking, if this does require a repair, what the impact to the fleet & scheduling might be for AS since they fly so many 737NGs. This doesn't sound like a part that's usually replaced or repaired, I doubt it's simple "pull it out and plug a new one in" kinda job.