Media and press reports reveal disturbing events regarding quality on Boeing aircraft, especially its 737 series, the workhorse of passenger aviation. These safety and assembly issues and bogus parts found in many passenger planes are an extreme worry.
Critical aircraft parts made by third party suppliers are of serious concern. On average a 737 consists of 600,000 parts, each part plays a crucial role in air safety. A critical part made by a third party supplier in China is part no P665A0039-02, it is the blocking or mount lug of the 737’s spoiler, a single point of failure part. If this critical part fails, the entire system will fail, which could cause a fatal accident.
Critical parts made in China are not baked long enough to remove some of the hydrogen, while other safety critical parts are made of inferior material.
The US National Transportation Safety Board, has linked bogus aircraft parts to at least 32 general aviation crashes involving 11 or more deaths since 2011. Although these parts have not been blamed for any commercial plane crashes, government records show 2,868 incidents of standard unapproved parts discovered on commercial planes flown by almost every airline.
Substandard parts are to be found on Boeing 737s and 777s. More than 300 Boeing 737s including the Max, may have faulty wing parts that don’t meet strength and durability standards. As many as 148 parts made by Boeing suppliers could be susceptible to premature failure or cracks.
According to aviation data,166 accidents or serious mishaps between May 1973 and April 1993 were due to bogus parts. Some jet parts made for Pratt & Whitney engines are examples of the sort of counterfeit parts that were found in passenger planes and other aircraft.
No country or agency tracks the use of unapproved parts, so the magnitude of the problem is nearly impossible to estimate. Some of these bogus parts look almost exactly like the authentic parts, right down to the official seal. This menace to aviation must be tackled on a global basis.
Farouk Araie, Johannesburg
READER LETTER | Bogus aircraft parts catastrophic
Media and press reports reveal disturbing events regarding quality on Boeing aircraft, especially its 737 series, the workhorse of passenger aviation. These safety and assembly issues and bogus parts found in many passenger planes are an extreme worry.
Critical aircraft parts made by third party suppliers are of serious concern. On average a 737 consists of 600,000 parts, each part plays a crucial role in air safety. A critical part made by a third party supplier in China is part no P665A0039-02, it is the blocking or mount lug of the 737’s spoiler, a single point of failure part. If this critical part fails, the entire system will fail, which could cause a fatal accident.
Critical parts made in China are not baked long enough to remove some of the hydrogen, while other safety critical parts are made of inferior material.
The US National Transportation Safety Board, has linked bogus aircraft parts to at least 32 general aviation crashes involving 11 or more deaths since 2011. Although these parts have not been blamed for any commercial plane crashes, government records show 2,868 incidents of standard unapproved parts discovered on commercial planes flown by almost every airline.
Substandard parts are to be found on Boeing 737s and 777s. More than 300 Boeing 737s including the Max, may have faulty wing parts that don’t meet strength and durability standards. As many as 148 parts made by Boeing suppliers could be susceptible to premature failure or cracks.
According to aviation data,166 accidents or serious mishaps between May 1973 and April 1993 were due to bogus parts. Some jet parts made for Pratt & Whitney engines are examples of the sort of counterfeit parts that were found in passenger planes and other aircraft.
No country or agency tracks the use of unapproved parts, so the magnitude of the problem is nearly impossible to estimate. Some of these bogus parts look almost exactly like the authentic parts, right down to the official seal. This menace to aviation must be tackled on a global basis.
Farouk Araie, Johannesburg
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