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FAA, Boeing Agree on Rudder Repair
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2000 9:12 PM
- Associated Press
WASHINGTON, Sep 13, 2000 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The Federal Aviation Administration has reached
an agreement with the Boeing Co. for the aircraft manufacturer to redesign the rudders of all Boeing 737s,
the most widely used airliner in the world.
The rudders have been suspect following a pair of fatal accidents in Colorado and Pennsylvania.
Three changes have previously been mandated in 737 rudder controls and officials said they have had no
reports of rudder problems since they were implemented. They likened the new steps to the ultimate safety
improvement.
Because the redesign could take years to implement, the agency said it will also announce new training
procedures for pilots to use in the event of rudder problems on the more than 3,000 twin-engine jets now in
service.
"We will be mandating a redesign of the rudder system to ensure redundancies in the system," FAA
spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said Wednesday night.
She said Boeing is currently in the process of developing the redesign, which will be submitted to the
agency for approval. That is expected to lead to an airworthiness directive sometime next year ordering the
change in all 737s.
The changes, first reported by The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times on its Web site and ABC News, would be
done when the planes undergo routine maintenance.
Once that directive is issued, the company will have about five years to make the changes in planes
currently flying. The new design will be required in all newly made 737s.
"These planes are going to be around for another 30 years or so," she said.
The St. Petersburg Times said Boeing would pay the full cost of the retrofit, estimated at $240 million.
Boeing had no immediate comment.
Overall, the Boeing 737 has an excellent safety record, but a USAir crash outside of Pittsburgh in 1994 and
an earlier United Airlines crash at Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1991 have puzzled investigators. Both planes
suddenly plunged to the ground.
The rudder is a moving section of the planes vertical tail. Moving the rudder left or right causes the plane to
turn in that direction.
Crash investigators suggested the 737s control valve could cause the rudder to unexpectedly jam in the
opposite direction from that intended by the pilot, causing the plane to suddenly go out of control.
On Sept. 8, 1994, USAir Flight 427 crashed after plummeting 6,000 feet while en route from Chicago to
Pittsburgh. All 132 people aboard are killed. On March 3, 1991, United Airlines Flight 585 crashed outside
Colorado Springs, killing all 25 on board.
Both crashes occurred as the planes were approaching airports at a low level, leaving the pilots little time to
recover before the crash.
The design change planned for the rudder would prevent that from happening, the FAA said.
Earlier changes in the design had fixed problems with some control mechanisms and an earlier set of
emergency rudder control problem training procedures for pilots was put in place.
Because suspicious remained, the FAA convened a special panel to study the issue a year ago and the new
agreement grew out of that analysis.
One of the findings, Spitaliere said, was that pilots found the training methods developed to deal with rudder
emergencies too complex when tested in simulators.
So a new set of procedures, easy for pilots to understand and memorize has been developed and will be
announced with a few weeks, she said.
There have been no reports of rudder problems since the earlier design fixes, and the pilot training should
help avert any that might occur, she said. While the rudder redesign is intended to eliminate, in the long
term, any need for such special training.
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2000 Associated Press, All rights reserved
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