Following the Latam incident, pilot seats will have to be analyzed
RR | Miami | August 20, 2024
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RELATED TOPICS: Air Europa, Boeing 787, Latam, Miami
The United States has issued a global alert affecting 895 Boeing 787s, a model used by Air Europa, whose long-haul fleet consists of 26 units of this aircraft.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered an urgent inspection of these aircraft to analyse the operation of the pilots’ seats. It has taken this decision following the incident that occurred last March with a Latam Airlines aircraft.
The agency has given airlines 30 days to inspect the correct operation of the pilot and co-pilot seats to detect missing or broken switch covers.
On March 11 of this year, a Latam 787 suddenly fell more than 100 meters while flying between Sydney and Santiago de Chile. The accident left 50 passengers injured.
The incident was apparently caused by a crew member accidentally activating a motorised function, pushing the pilot’s seat and causing him to disengage the autopilot. This caused the plane to crash for a few seconds.
The FAA has determined that the incident was caused by the fact that the switch to activate the aforementioned function was missing a cover. For this reason, it has requested that 895 aircraft of this model be urgently reviewed. Of these, 158 operate for American airlines, while the remaining 737 are registered in other countries.
As reported by REPORTUR.usIn March, the hypothesis that experts considered most likely was a failure in the electronic mechanism of the pilot’s seat. The data, leaked in Chile, suggested that the pilot may have unintentionally touched some element of the seat so that it suddenly moved, causing the pilot, who was controlling the aircraft, to make a very sudden movement of the instruments. According to this version, the pilot took a while to regain complete control of the situation. (Latam: the pilot’s seat may have caused the incident on the 787).
However, there were those who considered this version to be implausible because the seat controls are not in an easily accessible place, much less accidentally.
