Boeing 737 | featured news

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered an inspection of more than 1,000 U.S.-registered Boeing 737 jets to examine the tail planes for a potentially faulty part, which it said could cause pilots to lose control of the aircraft if it failed. The airworthiness directive (AD) issued by the FAA calls on airlines and other operators to replace tail plane fixing pins with improved pins following concerns over how their protective surface coating was applied.

Boeing will step up production of its next-generation 737 model to 42 airplanes a month in response to growing customer demand.

Southwest Airlines said on Tuesday that it had completed inspections of its older Boeing 737s and had found small cracks in a total of five passenger planes.