The first of Jin Air’s three Boeing 737NGs found with “pickle fork” cracks returned to service this week. The Korean Air-affiliated carrier says that repair and replacement work, conducted jointly with Boeing, was completed on Monday and the aircraft was returned to service on Tuesday. It tells Cirium that FAA and South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) had approved the outcome of the repair work after safety checks and test flights. “We have two more B737 NGs with same problem and expect the repair to finish within this year,” it says. The “pickle fork” is a piece of hardware which connects the wing to the aircraft fuselage. Cracking of the hardware could result in structural failure, which affects the structure integrity of the aircraft and results in loss of control. Global regulators have urged airlines operating 737NGs with more than 30,000 flight cycles to inspect their aircraft immediately for cracks. Aircraft that have logged 22,600-30,000 cycles should be inspected within the next 1,000 cycles.
Last week, MOLIT identified 13 737NGs that contain cracks, after inspecting 100 737NGs. Nine of these were identified in a first round of inspection in October and had clocked more than 30,000 flight cycles. MOLIT notified Boeing about the cracks, which then sent a team to South Korea on 31 October to commence repair work. It said it takes about two weeks to work on each aircraft and the affected aircraft will all be repaired by January 2020. The ministry did not specify which airlines operated the affected 737NG aircraft, but local media reports state that besides the three from Jin Air, five were operated by Korean Air, three by Jeju Air and two from Eastar Jet. The same reports indicate that Boeing’s team is working on the five 737NGs operated by Korean Air and two of three from Jin Air.

Source: FlightGlobal

United Airlines has joined American Airlines and Southwest Airlines in removing the 737 Max from its schedules until early March 2020, a change aligning US carriers' expectations even as Boeing projects the aircraft will be flying before year end. United now expects its 737 Max flights will resume 4 March. It previously had removed the aircraft from its schedules until early January. The move scrubs an additional roughly 3,300 flights from Chicago-based United's schedule. The carrier disclosed the change in a statement that provides no details about reasons behind the decision.
"Moving forward, we’ll continue to monitor the regulatory process and nimbly make the necessary adjustments to our operation and our schedule to benefit our customers who are traveling with us," the airline's statement says. Assuming the Max returns to service in early March 2020, United will have cancelled more than 16,000 flights as a result of the grounding, which took effect in March, its figures show. Earlier this month, American and Southwest pushed back their expected Max reentry dates. American's schedule now has Max flights resuming on 5 March, and Southwest set the date at 7 March. Despite those moves, several days ago Boeing issued a statement saying it expects the US Federal Aviation Administration will clear the Max to fly in December. Once that happens, airlines will likely need to run pilots through new training.

Source: FlightGlobal

Argentinean investigators have found that a Flybondi Boeing 737-800 was out of balance before it tipped up and struck its tail while attempting to depart from Iguazu Falls airport last year. The aircraft had just commenced its take-off roll from runway 31 when, about 6s after its thrust levers were advanced, it abruptly pitched up at about 30kt, causing its aft fuselage to scrape the ground. Its crew aborted the departure and returned to the parking stand. Argentinean investigation authority JIAAC says the aircraft was transporting 65 passengers and a crew of six on a service to El Palomar at night on 16 July 2018. Budget airline Flybondi had acquired the aircraft (LV-HQY) three months earlier, in April, after it came off lease with Turkish Airlines as TC-JGH. It had been configured with 165 economy seats for the Turkish carrier but it was refitted in France with 189 economy seats for Flybondi. Airport handling documentation was updated, as required, to reflect the aircraft' new weight-and-balance envelope under the new seating layout, says JIAAC. The load and trim sheet for the flight lists the passengers as being distributed primarily in the front of the aircraft, with 38 in the two forward cabin sections and 27 in the two aft sections. This put the calculated centre-of-gravity at 22.2% of the mean aerodynamic chord. But JIAAC says the actual distribution "did not correspond" to that prepared on the sheet. All but a few passengers were located in the two aft sections, with just one person in the front cabin where 20 were supposed to be sat. The inquiry says this distribution would have shifted the centre-of-gravity to a position 38% of the mean chord, placing it "outside the flight envelope".

Source: FlightGlobal