The Boeing Co. and aviation regulators are looking into an incident involving improperly installed landing gear on a 777.
Last month, Boeing pilots had to make an emergency landing of a newly built 777 at Paine Field in Everett after a warning message in the cockpit signaled a problem with th
e landing gear.
The plane landed safely. After further inspection, Boeing found a broken metal bearing in the landing gear. The company determined that workers didn’t follow instructions while adjusting it as it was assembled.
“This is a complicated workmanship issue,” Debbie Heathers, Boeing spokeswoman for the 777 program, said Wednesday.
The company informed Federal Aviation Administration officials about the problem. This is the second quality-related problem that Boeing has reported to the FAA in the past few months. In April, the FAA stepped up its oversight at both Boeing’s Renton and Everett sites after the jet maker disclosed that debris had been found in the fuel tank of a 767-300.
Heathers said the process that led to the 777 landing gear error has been fixed. The 777 involved in the incident was delivered to the customer several days later.
Boeing conducted inspections on other 777s but only found a problem with the one involved in the emergency landing, she said.
Boeing said last month that it had returned to building seven 777s monthly after slowing production down during the recession. The company plans another production increase, going up to 8.3 777s monthly or 100 777s yearly, by the first quarter of 2013.
Heathers said the 777 involved in the incident was built prior to Boeing reaching the rate of seven aircraft monthly. The workmanship problem should not affect Boeing’s plan to increase 777 production, she said.
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