FAA Hits Boeing on Escape Slide

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a preliminary airworthiness directive to The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) proposing a fix to more than 300 of the company’s 767 widebody jets that would prevent the unexpected release of a plane’s emergency escape slides. The proposed directive does not address any issue with the deployment of the slides during an emergency.

Of the planes affected by the directive only those operated by U.S. carriers are directly affected although foreign carriers would be expected to comply with the directive once the FAA makes its final ruling.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the FAA’s goals for the directive:

The agency wants airlines to replace certain valves that could cause premature or unwanted deployment of escape slides on 767s “during normal airplane maintenance or operations.” The result of such deployments, according to the FAA document, could be “injury to passengers and crew, damage to equipment, and the slide becoming unusable in an emergency evacuation.”

Boeing issued non-binding service bulletins in April 2015 and November 2014 alerting operators to the problem and explaining how to correct the problem.
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Boeing had delivered 1,083 767s to customers through the end of November 2015. The backlog currently numbers 79, all but four of which are freighters. The four 767-2C planes in Boeing’s backlog are likely destined for the company’s KC-46A military tanker program. The 767-2C is the commercial baseline plane used in building the new tankers.