(Reuters) – Engineers have found two more places on some Boeing 737 Max jets that have the electrical problem that led to dozens of the planes being suspended from service last week, industry sources said.
Airlines pulled dozens of MAX jets from service a week ago after Boeing Co warned of a production-related electrical grounding flaw in a backup power control unit situated in the cockpit on some recently built airplanes.
Since then, two further cases of suspected grounding problems have been found on the flight deck, the sources said.
These include the storage rack where the affected control unit is kept and the instrument panel facing the pilots.
Boeing had no immediate comment on the wider problem, which was first reported by Aviation Week. (https://bit.ly/3mT210Y)
Boeing shares fell more than 1%.
The glitch is the latest problem to beset Boeing’s most-sold model but is not related to computer design problems that
contributed to a 20-month safety ban in the wake of two crashes.
Boeing is expected to draw up bulletins advising airlines how to fix the problems with grounding, or the electrical paths designed to maintain safety in the event of a surge of voltage.
U.S. regulators must first approve the bulletins.
While most analysts say the fix is expected to be relatively straightforward, no details were immediately available on the timing of the repair bulletins needed to start the work on some 90 jets affected by the suspension, which covers part of the MAX fleet.
The planemaker had initially told airlines a fix could take hours or a few days per jet, according to a notification seen by Reuters when the partial suspension was first announced.
Airline sources say no 737 MAX jets have been delivered since the problem was first reported last week.
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski and Tim Hepher; Editing by Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman)
