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Washington — USA Aviation regulators said Monday that Boeing will resume delivery of the 787 Dreamliner within a few days after making the necessary inspection and modification changes to meet the certification criteria.
Boeing suspended delivery in May 2021 after the FAA expressed concern about the proposed inspection method. In September 2020, the FAA stated that it was investigating manufacturing flaws in 787 passenger jets.
American Airlines is set to receive the first 787 planes delivered by Boeing since the outage, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can approve the delivery of the first planes on Monday or late Tuesday. , The airline will pick up the plane on Wednesday. If a FAA safety inspector discovers a problem, the process can take longer.
American Airlines said in its July earnings announcement that it will receive nine 787s this year, including two in early August.
Boeing said Monday, "We will continue to work transparently with FAA and our customers to resume delivery of the 787."
Last month, the FAA approved Boeing's plans for specific inspections to ensure that the plane met the requirements and all modifications were completed.
Boeing presented the first of about 120 787s awaiting delivery to the FAA for approval. The FAA said, "We will inspect each aircraft before an airworthiness certificate is issued and cleared for delivery." Normally, the FAA delegates ticketing authority to the manufacturer, but it may also be responsible for approving new planes, such as the 737 MAX.
After two fatal 737MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, the FAA investigated Boeing more closely and delegated aircraft certification to Boeing. I promised to reduce my responsibility.
On Thursday, FAA's deputy administrator, Billy Nolen, with a South Carolina FAA safety inspector while considering whether to allow Boeing to resume delivery of the 787. I met.
Before Boeing stopped production, the FAA had previously issued two airworthiness directives to address production issues for in-service airplanes. It identified a new issue in July 2021.
The plane maker resumed delivery in March 2021 after a five-month hiatus, and then stopped again. The FAA has previously confirmed that Boeing "has a strong plan for rework that needs to be performed on a large number of new 787s in storage" and that "Boeing's delivery process is stable." Said he wanted.
In January, Boeing disclosed $ 3.5 billion in claims due to 787 delays and customer concessions, and $ 1 billion in unusual manufacturing costs due to manufacturing defects and related repairs and inspections. Did. (Report by David Shepardson, edited by Mark Porter, Cynthia Osterman, David Gregorio)
