U.S. air-safety regulators said parts inside the wings of more than 310 of Boeing Co.’s 737 jets, including grounded Max models, may be defective and need to be replaced.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s Sunday statement indicated the manufacturing problem doesn’t pose an imminent accident hazard. But the move comes during heightened global scrutiny of the 737 Max’s safety and amid separate efforts by the FAA and plane maker to agree on a software fix to prevent misfires of a potentially dangerous flight-control system.
The FAA said the plane maker alerted it that a manufacturing problem means the suspect parts — which guide the movement of movable flight-control panels on the front of wings — may be weaker and less durable than required.
After the FAA’s move, Boeing BA, -2.36% put out its own statement indicating it “has not been informed of any in-service issues related to this batch” of suspect parts. The company also said it intends to issue a service bulletin outlining the inspection process, noting that a total of 41 planes are those most likely to need replacement parts. The company said the work will take one or two days to complete.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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