ANA, Etihad also affected by latest 787 deficiencies
Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) and UAE flag carrier Etihad Airways have confirmed to Airfinance Journal that they are among seven airlines affected by the latest Boeing 787 issues.
ANA has been instructed to immediately park its second 787-10, delivered in late June 2019.
Etihad has been asked to ground two 787s of an unspecified variant, thus making it the only carrier to date with two aircraft flagged.
Airfinance Journal had previously reported that Air Canada, United Airlines and Singapore Airlines (SIA) were also affected.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Air Europa and Norwegian also had received service bulletins from Boeing concerning 787 quality defects.
On 8 September, Boeing told Airfinance Journal that the OEM had "identified two distinct manufacturing issues in the join of certain 787 aftbody fuselage sections”, which in combination “result in a condition that does not meet” its design standards.
This has led Boeing to issue service bulletins to the aforementioned eight operators, requiring inspections and repairs prior to continued operation.
“The rest of the in-service fleet has been determined to meet limit load capability, and we are inspecting production airplanes to ensure any issues are addressed prior to delivery,” the OEM says.
“Specifically, we found that some airplanes have shims installed that are not the proper size, and some airplanes have areas that do not meet our skin flatness specifications per engineering. Individually these issues, while not up to specifications, still meet limit load conditions. When combined in the same location however, they result in a condition that does not meet limit load requirements,” Boeing adds.