Boeing may have to delay deliveries of more of its 737 planes after a worker discovered a production problem with some of its planes' fuselages.
In a letter shared with the media, Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told employees that a worker at a supplier found faulty holes in the fuselage.
Spirit AeroSystems, based in Wichita, Kan., manufactures several Boeing MAX jet fuselages.
“Although this potential situation does not present an immediate safety issue and all 737s can continue to operate safely, we currently believe we will have to perform a rework on approximately 50 undelivered aircraft,” Dale wrote.
Dale added that an employee at the fuselage supplier told his manager that two holes may not have been drilled according to specifications.
“We are in close contact with Boeing on this matter,” Spirit spokesman Joe Buccino told Reuters news agency.
This comes after more than 170 planes were grounded by US regulators when an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 plane crashed. He was forced to make an emergency landing On January 5th.
In this accident, a window and a piece of the fuselage exploded from the side of the plane shortly after it took off from Portland, Oregon.
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January: Boeing plane accident in mid-air
Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, the only other U.S. airlines flying the Max 9, announced the results Loose hardware in door seals For other aircraft they inspected after the accident at the beginning of the year.
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all Max 9 aircraft in the United States the day after the explosion. Two weeks later, the agency approved an inspection and maintenance process to allow the planes to return to flying.
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Alaska Airlines and United Airlines have begun returning some of them to service.
Boeing, based in Washington, said last week it had withdrawn an application for a safety exemption required to certify a new, smaller model of the 737 MAX.
