Federal officers mentioned Thursday they’re investigating an uncommon rolling movement on a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 that may have been brought on by a broken backup power-control unit.
The Federal Aviation Administration mentioned it is working with Boeing and the National Transportation Safety Board to analyze the incident on a May 25 flight from Phoenix to Oakland. Southwest says it is working with the FAA and Boeing.
The FAA mentioned the aircraft went right into a “Dutch roll,” the identify given to the mixture of a yawing movement when the tail slides and the aircraft rocks from wingtip to wingtip. It’s mentioned to imitate the motion of a Dutch ice skater. It occurred when the jetliner was at about 32,000 toes.
Pilots are skilled to recuperate from the situation, and the aircraft landed safely in Oakland about an hour later. There have been no accidents reported among the many 175 passengers and 6 crew members who have been on board.
According to a preliminary report by the FAA, an inspection after the aircraft landed confirmed harm to a unit that gives backup energy to the rudder.
CBS News Aviation Safety analyst Robert Sumwalt instructed CBS News senior transportation and nationwide correspondent Kris Van Cleave by way of e mail that, “Any uncommanded flight management motion is doubtlessly important. The undeniable fact that this resulted in important harm makes this kind of an enormous deal.”
The FAA mentioned different airways have not reported comparable points and Southwest mentioned it hasn’t had an analogous subject with different Max jets in its fleet.
Van Kleave notes that the aircraft concerned was delivered in November 2022 and so has been in use for somewhat over a yr.
The incident was first reported by The Aviation Herald, which mentioned a brief restore was carried out in Oakland after which the plane was “ferried” to Boeing’s plant in Everett, Wash. for additional repairs.
The newest incident comes because the 737 Max stays underneath heavy scrutiny within the wake of a door plug blowing out of a model new Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9, which led to a brief grounding of that Max model.
