Boeing, the aircraft manufacturing giant, on Tuesday stopped the shipments of its 787 Dreamliner for a flaw in the tail section of the plane, an AP report said. The company said that the deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner have been paused again in light of another manufacturing issue.
The company revealed that it is inspecting fittings on part of the aircraft’s tail called the horizontal stabiliser “for a nonconforming condition.” Due to this development, the company is conducting inspections and repairs which will affect near-term deliveries, however, won’t alter the company’s forecast of deliveries for the full year.
‘Not a safety issue’
The company did not say how many planes are affected by the flaw in the wing and added that it is not a safety issue and planes already in airline fleets can keep flying. Additionally, the company has already notified the Federal Aviation Administration and airlines about this new defect.
String of setbacks for Boeing
Both 787 and the 737 Max have been facing a string of setbacks. Both the aircrafts have been plagued by production defects that have sporadically held up deliveries, which has left airlines without planes during the peak travel season.
It may be noted that the deliveries of 787s have been stopped several times by Boeing in the past three years because of defects and production issues. Earlier in April, the company detected a defect in fittings on Max jets where the fuselage meets the vertical section of the tail.
The deliveries of 787 were also halted a month before that as the American regulators were looking over the documentation of work that was done on the new aircrafts. Such delays in the shipment have affected Boeing negatively as the buyers usually pay a large part of the purchase price on delivery.
