Questions surrounding Boeing parts stop jet deliveries

Boeing has again halted deliveries of its 787 passenger jet because of questions about a supplier’s analysis of the front part of the plane, company and federal officials said Thursday.

Boeing said the issue does not pose an immediate safety concern for planes already in service. The Federal Aviation Administration was more cautious, saying it was working with Boeing to determine what modifications might be needed for planes recently delivered to airlines.

The discovery is the latest setback for the two-aisle aircraft, which Boeing calls the Dreamliner and is used mostly on international routes. Delivery was stopped for more than a year. Until August 2022While Boeing corrected the manufacturing defects with the fit of the panels in the carbon-composite skin.

“Boeing has temporarily suspended deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner after notifying the FAA that it is conducting additional analysis on a fuselage component,” the FAA said in a statement Thursday. “Deliveries will not resume until the FAA is satisfied that the problem has been resolved.”

A Boeing spokesman said the company, based in Arlington, Virginia, “discovered an analysis error by our supplier related to the 787 forward pressure bulkhead,” a part that separates the plane’s nose from the pressurized cabin. Boeing did not name the supplier.

“There is no immediate safety of flight concern for the in-service fleet,” the company said.

Boeing said near-term deliveries would be affected but did not expect it to change the company’s supply forecast for this year.