The first commercial flight of the Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on December 15, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia.
James D. Morgan | Getty images
The Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday that it will inspect four of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes itself, rather than delegating that work to Boeing, after production problems came to light last year.
“The FAA is taking a number of corrective actions to address the Boeing 787 manufacturing problems,” the agency said in a statement. “One of the actions is to retain the authority to issue certificates of airworthiness for four 787 aircraft. The FAA may retain the authority to issue certificates of airworthiness for an additional 787 aircraft if we see the need.”
The increased control of the Dreamliners comes four months after the FAA lifted a 20-month flight ban on Boeing’s best-selling 737 Max, which the regulator grounded in March 2019 after two fatal crashes in five months. The FAA also retained its authority to sign off on Max aircraft that Boeing has produced since grounding.
Boeing revealed problems with some of the seams on the plane in September.
The FAA told Boeing in January that it would put the final signature on the planes, according to a letter seen by CNBC. It was previously reported by Bloomberg News. Boeing said it still expects to resume deliveries of the planes later this month.
We are encouraged by the progress our team is making in returning to the delivery business for the 787 program, “said Boeing.” We have engaged the FAA throughout this effort and will implement their guidelines for the approval of the airworthiness certification of the original aircraft as they did. in the past.”
While these most recent Dreamliner audits were in response to manufacturing issues, the FAA said it has conducted the latest airworthiness audits on approximately 787s in recent years “to allow FAA inspectors to meet their inspection coin requirements.”