Boeing warned on Tuesday about a new problem with its 787 Dreamliner aircraft and said that the defect would delay the delivery of the wide-body plane, the latest production issue for the manufacturer.
Boeing issued a statement saying that it was inspecting the 787s within its inventory to determine if there is a condition which does not meet standards. This concern relates to a fitting located on the horizontal stabilizer. Boeing said that planes with non-conforming conditions will be repaired before tickets and deliveries are issued.
Boeing found a problem with the spacing of the horizontal stabilizer. Boeing stated that the issue is not related to flight safety, and planes currently in service are able to continue flying. Boeing announced that near-term deliveries would be delayed by two weeks.
This is just the latest of a series of manufacturing problems on Boeing aircraft that has slowed, if not stopped deliveries of certain planes outright. At the same time airlines are scrambling for new planes in order to capitalize on the boom .
Boeing had stopped deliveries for a few weeks in the beginning of this year due to a separate issue with a fuselage part on certain 787s. Boeing said that the latest issue does not affect its full-year forecast for Dreamliner delivery. Boeing estimated it would deliver 70 to 80 Dreamliners this year.
The company has also had to rework this year some of its bestselling 737 Max aircraft because of a problem with fittings on some planes’ aft fuses, made by Spirit Aerosystems.
Boeing shares dropped sharply after the news, but recovered largely. They were recently less than 1% lower in afternoon trading.
