The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that it will inspect four of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner planes itself, as opposed to assigning that work to Boeing, after production issues surfaced a year ago.
“The FAA is taking a number of corrective actions to address Boeing 787 production issues,” the agency said in a statement. “One of the actions is retaining the authority to issue airworthiness certificates for four 787 aircraft. The FAA can retain the authority to issue airworthiness certificates for additional 787 aircraft if we see the need.”
The expanded investigation of the Dreamliners comes four months after the FAA lifted a 20-month flight restriction on Boeing’s best-selling 737 Max, which the controller grounded in March 2019 after two dangerous accidents in five months. The FAA likewise held its authority to sign off on Max planes that Boeing produced since the establishing.
Boeing revealed issues for certain creases on the airplane in September.
The FAA told Boeing in January that it would offer the final sign-off on the planes, as indicated by a letter seen by CNBC. It was accounted for before by Bloomberg News. Boeing said it actually hopes to continue deliveries of the planes later this month.
″We are encouraged by the progress our team is making on returning to delivery activities for the 787 program,” Boeing said. “We have engaged the FAA throughout this effort and will implement their direction for airworthiness certification approval of the initial airplanes as they have done in the past.”
While these latest Dreamliner checks came in light of production issues, the FAA said it has performed last airworthiness minds some 787s in the previous few years “so FAA inspectors can fulfill their inspection-currency requirements.”