WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration late on Friday said it would require operators of some Boeing 737 NG jetliners to conduct inspections for structural cracks and make repairs as needed following the discovery of cracks on a small number of planes.
The FAA said Boeing notified it of the issue “after it discovered the cracks while conducting modifications on a heavily used aircraft.” Subsequent inspections “uncovered similar cracks in a small number of additional planes.” Boeing said on Friday it has been in contact with 737 NG operators about a cracking issue, but added that “no in-service issues have been reported.”
Neither the FAA nor Boeing immediately said how many planes were impacted by the required inspections.
The 737 NG, or Next Generation, was introduced in 1997 and is the third generation version of the best-selling Boeing airplane. The 737 MAX, which was grounded in March after two fatal crashes in five months, is not affected by this issue, Boeing said.
The FAA said it would ask operators of the NG to “report their findings to the agency immediately” after completing inspections. Boeing said “over the coming days, we will work closely with our customers to implement a recommended inspection plan for certain airplanes in the fleet.”
KOMO News reported on Friday the issue involved cracked “pickle forks” in some 737 NG jets. The pickle fork attaches the plane’s fuselage, or body, to the wing structure and manages forces. A failure of the part in flight could pose a serious risk. KOMO said workers found a severely cracked pickle fork on a Boeing 737NG earlier this month.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler)
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A unit of Russian conglomerate Rostec said on Tuesday it was ready for an out-of-court settlement with Boeing over its order for 35 Boeing 737 MAX jets, a spokesman for Rostec’s subsidiary Avia Capital Service told Reuters.
Boeing MAX 737 jets have been grounded worldwide and airlines are cancelling multimillion contracts following crashes in October and March that killed 346 people.
Earlier on Tuesday, Rostec said its unit had filed a lawsuit in the United States to cancel its order for the 35 MAX jets. The Financial Times, which first reported the move, said Avia Capital Service gave Boeing a cash deposit of $35 million.
A spokesman for Avia Capital Service told Reuters that delivery of the jets was first scheduled for October 2019 but was moved to March 2022. The Rostec unit had paid Boeing a deposit and was suffering losses from non-delivery, he said.
“If Boeing executives show a good will, we are ready to hold talks and find a mutually-beneficial out-of-court settlement for compensation of the losses we have suffered,” he said.
He added that the jets were ordered for a number of Russian air companies, including domestic low-cost firm Pobeda, a unit of the state carrier Aeroflot.
Russia is mainly using Boeing and Airbus jets for passenger flights, with a number of domestic airlines also adding Russian-made regional Sukhoi Superjet aircraft to their fleets.
The Rostec subsidiary now wants the deposit to be returned by Boeing with interest, along with $75 million in “lost profit” and about $115 million in compensatory damages, plus “several times the amount” in punitive damages, the FT said.
Rostec declined to provide further details about the lawsuit.
(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; writing by Anton Kolodyazhnyy and Tom Balmforth; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips/Katya Golubkova and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
CHICAGO/WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Thursday it would invite Boeing 737 MAX pilots from across the world to participate in simulator tests as part of the process to recertify the aircraft for flight following two fatal crashes.
Earlier, Reuters reported that the agency had asked the three U.S. airlines that operate the MAX to provide the names of some pilots who had only flown the 737 for around a year, including at least one MAX flight.
In a statement, the FAA said it had not specified the number of required hours of flight experience, but said the candidates would be a cross-section of line pilots and must have experience at the controls of the MAX.
Boeing Co’s latest 737 narrow-body model, the MAX, was grounded worldwide in March after two crashes within five months in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.
Boeing has been reprogramming software for a stall-prevention system at the center of both crashes, which the FAA must approve before the plane flies again commercially.
The FAA said it had not yet specified a firm schedule for the tests.
Boeing has said it is working toward getting the 737 MAX flying again commercially in the early fourth quarter. Reuters reported on Thursday that it had told suppliers it planned to ramp 737 production back up in February, sending its shares 4% higher.
The world’s largest planemaker slowed its 737 production rate in April because deliveries of the MAX, which makes up the bulk of its single-aisle production, were frozen under the grounding, hitting its supply chain and airline customers.
In the United States, MAX operators Southwest Airlines Co , American Airlines and United Airlines have had to cancel hundreds of daily flights as they wrestle with slimmer fleets at a time of strong domestic air travel demand.
The MAX is Boeing’s fastest-selling aircraft, with about 5,000 pending orders.
As part of its own testing process, Boeing has invited senior airline pilots to experiment with the software fix and use simulators to run scenarios similar to the ones that led to the two crashes.
But sources told Reuters that the FAA also wanted to observe newer 737 pilots. One source said the simulator tests were supposed to be conducted during the first week of September but had been pushed back to the middle of the month.
The FAA, which is working alongside global regulators, has said repeatedly it does not have a fixed time line to approve the grounded jets to fly commercially again.
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Peter Cooney)
Le Bourget, France, June 19 (Reuters) – Airbus unveiled an aircraft deal with Taiwan’s China Airlines on Wednesday, snatching the carrier’s medium-haul fleet renewal from Boeing a day after its U.S. rival made a shock entry into the single-aisle fleet of British Airways owner IAG.
The European planemaker said China Airlines had signed a preliminary deal to buy 11 A321neo aircraft, worth about $1.4 billion at list prices, while leasing another 14.
Although much smaller than the IAG letter of intent for 200 Boeing 737 MAX announced on Tuesday, the China Airlines deal signals intensified competition in Asia where Boeing this week predicted 40 percent of jets would be delivered over the next 20 years.
Airlines can rarely be persuaded to jump ship to rival suppliers because of the costs of training and parts, but this week’s Paris Airshow has witnessed two such announcements as sold-out planemakers mount incursions to continue their growth.
In a further competitive twist, Boeing announced on Monday it would take over the supply of spare parts for the remaining Airbus A320 fleet at British Airways.
China Airlines announced the leasing part of the deal in May and Reuters reported it would pave the way for the Taiwan carrier to switch its medium-haul fleet to the Airbus A320neo.
The rare deal to replace older 737s took years to complete and was drafted before the 737 MAX was engulfed by a crisis involving two crashes and a worldwide grounding, sources said.
PARIS, June 17 (Reuters) – Boeing Co said on Monday it had no plans to change the name of the 737 MAX after news reports that it would be prepared to do so to improve its future marketing.
“Our immediate focus is the safe return of the MAX to service and re-earning the trust of airlines and the traveling public,” a spokesman said in an emailed statement.
“We remain open-minded to all input from customers and other stakeholders, but have no plans at this time to change the name of the 737 MAX.”
Bloomberg News earlier quoted Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith as saying that if Boeing needed to change the brand it would “address” that. The report also said Boeing executives insisted they had no immediate plans to drop the MAX name.
CNBC also reported the comments.
U.S. President Donald Trump urged Boeing on April 15 to “Rebrand” its 737 MAX jetliner following two fatal crashes.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson, Tracy Rucinski, Edited by Tim Hepher)
FILE PHOTO: Bjoern Kjos, CEO of Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, attends a press conference presenting quarterly report of the company, in Oslo
PARIS (Reuters) – Norwegian Air expects Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft to remain grounded until at least the end of August, missing the European summer season, CEO Bjoern Kjos said on Friday.
“If you ask Boeing they still say June or July,” Kjos said at the Paris Air Forum. “But we’re already in mid-June – we’ve planned for the MAX to be out until the end of August.”
More than 300 Boeing 737 MAX jets have been grounded worldwide after two fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia killed nearly 350 people. Some airlines now expect the plane to remain out of action until the end of 2019.
Norwegian, which operated 18 of the planes, has said the grounding will raise its costs by up to 500 million Norwegian crowns ($58 million). The low-cost, long-haul operator has delayed disposal of older Boeing 737 models or prolonged leasing contracts while it waits for their MAX replacements.
Boeing is awaiting a decisions by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on software improvements it proposed after the crashes and whether to require additional pilot training before flights can resume.
If more training is ordered, a shortage of simulators means that “it might be much longer” before commercial flights resume, Kjos said. “For some operators it could take up to a year.”
As a customer of Boeing’s GoldCare maintenance program, however, the CEO said Norwegian might not have to wait that long.
“We’d hope to be at the front of the queue,” he said.
(Reporting by Laurence Frost and Tim Hepher; Editing by David Goodman)
FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo shows Boeing 737 MAX airplanes parked on the tarmac at the Boeing Factory in Renton, Washington
(Reuters) – Boeing Co said on Tuesday it handed over 56% fewer airplanes in May, compared with a year earlier, as deliveries of its top-selling 737 MAX jet remained suspended following a deadly crash in March.
Total deliveries fell to 30 planes, compared with 68 in 2018. Net orders for the first five months remained in negative territory, with a total of minus 125 net orders.
The company has been facing its worst ever crisis after an Ethiopian Airlines’ 737 MAX plane crashed, killing all 157 people on board, in the second fatal accident involving the jet in just five months.
Boeing reiterated on Sunday it was working with global regulators to certify a software update for the jet as well as related training and education material to safely return the plane to service.
Global airlines that had rushed to buy the fuel-efficient, longer-range aircraft have since canceled flights and scrambled to cover routes that were previously flown by the MAX.
European rival Airbus SE delivered 81 aircraft in May, up 59% from last year and 313 in the January-May period, a rise of 40%.
Boeing shares were down 0.6% at $351.44 in morning trade.
(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A helicopter made a crash landing onto the roof of a midtown Manhattan skyscraper on Monday, killing at least one person and sending a plume of smoke skyward from the top of the building. The person deceased is “presumed” to be the pilot.
The crash occurred shortly before 2 p.m. (1800 GMT) on a rainy, foggy day at the 750-foot (229m) AXA Equitable Center at 787 Seventh Avenue. Dozens of emergency vehicles swarmed the busy area, a few blocks north of Times Square.
The chopper took off from a heliport on Manhattan’s east side and crash-landed on the building 11 minutes later, emergency officials said.
The site is about half a mile from Trump Tower, where U.S. President Donald Trump maintains an apartment. The area has been under a temporary flight restriction since his election in November 2016.
Nathan Hutton, who works in information technology for the French bank BNP Paribas on the 29th floor, said the building shook when the helicopter slammed into the roof.
“It felt like you were just standing there, and someone takes their hand and just shoves you,” he said. “You felt it through the whole building.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the aircraft was an Agusta A109E, a twin-engine, lightweight helicopter. The pilot was the only person aboard, and FAA air traffic controllers did not handle the flight, according to the agency.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash, the FAA said.
Melvin Douglas, 50, who was selling umbrellas on the street, said he heard a “rumble” when the helicopter crash landed.
“I didn’t see it, but I felt it,” said Douglas. “Smoke was on top of the building.”
A fire that broke out on the roof was quickly brought under control, the fire department said. The building was evacuated after the crash.
Trump called New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was at the scene soon after the crash, to offer assistance if needed, the governor’s office said.
“Phenomenal job by our GREAT First Responders who are currently on the scene,” Trump said on Twitter after being briefed on the crash. “The Trump Administration stands ready should you need anything at all.”
The AXA Equitable Center was built in 1985 and includes more than 50 floors. A roof helipad is not listed as one of the building’s amenities on its website.
In addition to BNP Paribas, the building houses offices for a number of other corporate tenants, including law firms Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Sidley Austin and investment manager New Mountain Capital. Le Bernardin, one of New York City’s most celebrated restaurants, is also located in the AXA building.
The skyscraper is managed by the Los Angeles-based CommonWealth Partners. Reached by telephone, LeAnn Holsapple, the office manager for CommonWealth, said the company had “no comment at this time.”
Helicopters are a regular sight in the air around Manhattan, and they have occasionally been involved in crashes.
Nearly a month ago, a chopper crashed into the Hudson River in New York City shortly after taking off from Manhattan, injuring two people. A sightseeing helicopter went down in New York City’s East River in March 2018, killing five passengers.
Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Additional reporting by Peter Szekely and Jonathan Allen; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by David Alexander and Bill Rigby
Aeroflot has flown at least 129 fewer Sukhoi flights since the crash
Petition to ground plane has over 200,000 signatures
MOSCOW, June 3 (Reuters) – Russian airline Aeroflot has scaled back the number of Sukhoi Superjet 100 flights it operates after one of its planes made a crash-landing last month, killing 41 people, according to data provided by a flight tracking website.
Flightradar24 data shows Aeroflot has also at times substituted Airbus or Boeing planes for the Superjet, the first new passenger jet developed in Russia since the Soviet Union collapsed.
Fallout from the crash risks undermining the aircraft’s reputation at a time when Russia is promoting another domestically made passenger plane, the M-21, as a rival to Boeing and Airbus.
Aeroflot and Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, the Superjet’s maker, declined to comment on the data or on the use of other aircraft instead of the Russian plane. Both the airline, Russia’s national flag carrier, and the manufacturer have said in the past that the aircraft meets all relevant international safety standards and will continue to be made and used.
The cause of the May 5 crash, the second deadly accident involving the Superjet in nine years of service, has not yet been established. Russian authorities said afterwards there was no reason to ground the Superjet.
Yet Aeroflot flew 129 – or about 7% – fewer Superjet flights in the two weeks after the crash than in the previous fortnight, the Flightradar24 data showed.
In one case, frightened passengers on a Sukhoi refused to continue their journey after an aborted take-off, forcing Aeroflot to lay on an Airbus instead, an airline industry source with direct knowledge of the matter said, a version of events corroborated separately by Russia’s RIA news agency.
Aeroflot after the crash began paying extra attention to safety checks and to scale back the Superjet’s usage to try to reassure passengers, the same source said.
More than 213,000 people have signed a petition demanding the plane be grounded since May 5.
‘WHO NEEDS IT?’
Some Russian and foreign operators have complained about the difficulty of servicing the Superjet due to delays in sourcing spare parts. Irish airline CityJet and Belgian carrier Brussels Airlines turned their back on the Superjet citing those reasons.
State officials and airline executives say the airliner spends about half its time on the ground undergoing maintenance, and can fly only about a third as much as foreign-made rivals in a 24-hour period when in use.
They blame a lack of readily available spare parts and the complexity of servicing its engines.
Vitaly Savelyev, Aeroflot’s CEO, told Russian news agency TASS in 2017 that his company, which is majority-owned by the Russian state, might not have bought the Superjet at all if it was a private company.
Aeroflot, which has promised to buy a further 100 Superjets on top of the 49 it has already, is in a difficult situation because of the project’s political importance for Russia.
There are signs however that even some allies of President Vladimir Putin are growing weary of the aircraft.
Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the upper house of parliament, in November publicly rebuked the transport minister over the large sums she said had been pumped into the Superjet in vain.
Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta estimated in 2012 that $7 billion had been spent on the project, while Sukhoi has put the figure at $2 billion.
“Who needs it? … It’s not good for anything,” said Matviyenko. “Aeroflot says we bought them and they sit on the ground. Nobody abroad is buying them … What have we achieved?”
Mexican low-cost carrier Interjet, citing maintenance and parts problems, told Mexican daily newspaper El Universal just over a week after the crash that it was trying to sell its 20 Superjets and favoured Airbus 320s instead.
Regional carrier Yamal Airlines, Russia’s second biggest Superjet operator after Aeroflot, said a day after the crash that it was cancelling its planned purchase of 10 of the planes. It cited high servicing costs.
And RusLine, another regional carrier, told Kommersant it was scrapping provisional plans to obtain 18 Superjets as part of a leasing deal. The paper cited RusLine’s owner Nikolai Ulan as saying he thought the plane was safe but that passengers would be afraid to fly on it, making it harder for him to break even. RusLine did not respond to a request for comment.
PASSENGER FEARS
The Superjet, which entered service in 2011, is predominantly operated inside Russia by regional airlines, corporations and government entities. Sukhoi had hoped to sell hundreds, but slack demand means only 138 of the planes are in use.
On the Moscow-Murmansk route, the one taken by the plane involved in the fatal crash, Aeroflot replaced the Superjet with either Boeing 737s or Airbus A320s in the five days after the accident, a practice it partially continued the week after.
This was done in direct response to the crash in order to try to calm passenger fears, the same airline source said.
There have been a spate of safety-related incidents and cancellations since May 5.
In one case, a Superjet flight from Moscow to Riga was held up after passengers noticed a burning smell and demanded a new plane. Engineers found nothing wrong, one of the passengers told state TV.
In another, on May 18, passengers on a Moscow-bound flight from the city of Ulyanovsk took fright after their Superjet aborted take-off because of a warning about the hydraulic system.
“Passengers were told that the flight was being delayed for technical reasons. Of course, after the catastrophe, they started to panic and refused to fly on the same plane. The psychological factor came into play,” the airline source with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
Aeroflot flew the passengers to Moscow the next day on an Airbus A320 and engineers found nothing wrong with the Superjet involved in that incident either, the transport prosecutor’s office said.
Yevgeny Dietrich, Russia’s transport minister, said the situation was not “radically changed” from the pre-crash period.
“In fact, delays and cancellations occurred previously. You simply wrote about them less,” Dietrich told reporters.
His statement and the crash have highlighted the fact that many Superjets do not fly very often.
Flightradar24 data shows that 37 of 127 Superjets in commercial use globally did not make a single flight from April 22 until May 19, and that 45 did not make more than 10 flights during that period.
That tallies with expert reports, which have said foreign-made planes in Russia average nine hours flying time in every 24-hour period compared to between just three and four hours for the Superjet.
The same industry source said only about 50% of Aeroflot’s Superjets flew regularly and that Superjet pilots, who are paid for completed flights, had their salaries topped up to compensate for time spent on the ground.
(Writing by Andrew Osborn and Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Giles Elgood)
(Corrects “cancels” to “plans to postpone” in the first paragraph after AZAL changed its comment. Removes quote)
MOSCOW,
June 3 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan airline AZAL plans to postpone a $1
billion contract with Boeing to purchase 10 737 MAX jets, a spokesman
said on Monday, following fatal crashes involving the aircraft in
Ethiopia and Indonesia.
Boeing’s
top-selling aircraft, the 737 MAX, has been grounded worldwide since
the March 10 disaster, which killed 157 people and came just five months
after a Lion Air crash in Indonesia that killed 189 in a plane of the
same model.
Many countries barred 737 Max jets from taking off or landing at local airports.
(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; writing by Margarita Antidze)
