Every B737NG needs to undergo an emergency slat check

[FLY4HOURS.BE]

The FAA orders immediate inspections of leading-edge slats following the China Airlines B738 accident.

Other entities will probably follow.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... 37ngs.html

[regi]

and when you read the details, that it was just a small part that came loose and perforated the fuel tank...reminds me about the story of the El Al crash, the one that lost an engine over Amsterdam. The engines were fixed with just 4 bolts.

[David747]

The simple things is what tends to bring down these birds.

[achace]

According to Flight International, the problem is more than an isolated instance, and FAA have issued a new AD requiring compliance much sooner.

One bird apparantly had a pierced slat can like the China Airlines did, but not obviously as serious.

Like you said, so often it is the simple things!

Cheers
Achace

[regi]

the problem about loose bolts exists already since industry used bolts, let's say 200 years ago.
All kind of remedies have been doctored out, new inventions hit the market, but still bolts get loose.
I have no doubt that Boeing has a major division going about nuts and bolts. And when this happens, it makes people wonder what really happened. Could weight saving been an issue, by dropping washers and special nuts that can not get loose? Or was it the price? China?
I have no doubt that bolts in airplanes are assembled using specific tools with torque wrenches. But these special tools are expensive as well. You can buy such a tool in a DIY-store for 3-5$. But exactly the same tool from a renowed source costs 50-500 $ !

Have a look at the website of FACOM, a renowed name.
www.facom.com
At the bottom of the first page you see they had a stand at Le Bourget with...a special torque wrench.
So it is a very common issue in aircraft manufacturing.

[David747]

737-800 facing these inspections is still selling, a budget carrier in Europe just order 40 of these birds. With that being said, has the European Union issue an inspection of all 737-800 planes owned by European carriers?

[pressman]

European airplanes have to be inspected under the FAA directive as well , as the US is the state of Manufacture

[regi]

So what I read in Airliners.net seems to confirm it: a simple loose bolt, defect washer, missing nut.
And the inspections start to show very negative results. So it is not a single case of somewhere a mechanic with a hangover . It is a manufacturing issue. Maybe a design issue as well, of using a wrong construction in an environment of vibrations + large temperature changes ( expanding + shrinking makes standard bolting loose )

[FLY4HOURS.BE]

During checks ANA discovered that one of its 737-700's that was delivered in January of this year has a missing washer as it was on the China 738!!!!!

This plane's part had never been serviced, it seems.
A factory problem?

[Bilboone]

European airplanes have to be inspected under the FAA directive as well , as the US is the state of Manufacture

Infact it's a EASA Emergency AD that is issued for European registered Boeing 737- 6/7/8/900 aircrafts.
The directive can be found : here on the EASA site

They speak about an other operator that found fuel leaking out a drain hole at slat 5 track.

I think this will have a big impact , maybe boeing will have to redesign the whole assembly.

by the way , a lot of Facom "Aeronautic tooling" is crap !

[pressman]

So far I believe 2 of FR 738s have been discovered with the problem , one was apparantly quite bad in that it had started to scratch the fuel tank

[FLY4HOURS.BE]

I think this is gonna cost alot of money to Boeing....

[achace]

Its just part of the learning curve.
I am sure they will get it right eventually.