US issues alert after China Boeing fire

Following last month's incident of a China Airlines Boeing 737 catching fire in Japan, the US department of transport's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has directed all carriers to get the wings of these planes checked. India has also got this directive and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued a mandatory order to all airlines using the Boeing 737-700, -800 and -900 series to complete this check in 10 days. However, this check won't require grounding of aircraft.
A suspect malfunction of hardware in a wing of the China Airlines Boeing 737 is believed to have caused fuel leak that led to a major fire in the left engine soon after the plane landed in the Japanese island of Okinawa late August. All 165 people on board the aircraft had a miraculous escape as the explosion happened just after they evacuated using the emergency chutes.
The FAA's emergency airworthiness directive requires "repetitive detailed inspections" to verify that proper hardware is installed and calls for taking corrective actions.
Indian authorities insist that wing checks are done routinely by airlines and the DGCA order comes on the basis of the FAA directive.
02/09/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Foreign Sep 2007, General Aviation Sep 2007, Safety Sep 2007