US Transportation Safety Board Issues Urgent Alert About Boeing 737 Rudders

America's National Transportation Safety Board "is issuing 'urgent safety recommendations' for some Boeing 737s..." reports CNN, "warning that critical flight controls could jam."The independent investigative agency is issuing the warning that an actuator attached to the rudder on some 737 NG and 737 MAX airplanes could fail... "Boeing's 737 flight manual instructs pilots confronted with a jammed or restricted rudder to 'overpower the jammed or restricted system (using) maximum force, including a combined effort of both pilots,'" the NTSB said in a news release. "The NTSB expressed concern that this amount of force applied during landing or rollout could result in a large input to the rudder pedals and a sudden, large, and undesired rudder deflection that could unintentionally cause loss of control or departure from a runway," the statement said. "The FAA said United was the only U.S. airline flying planes with the manufacturing defect in the rudder control system," notes the Seattle Times, "and that United has already replaced the component on nine 737s, the only jets in its fleet where it was identified as faulty. However, the NTSB alert may cause the grounding of some 737 MAXs and older model 737NGs flown by foreign air carriers that have not yet replaced the defective part."

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