FAA orders safety inspections of Boeing 737s WASHINGTON (AP) =97 The government ordered inspections Saturday of the= latest=20 generation of Boeing 737s flying worldwide to see if any have potentially=20 defective flight control modules that could make the planes hard to=20 control. The Federal Aviation Administration's emergency order, which=20 covers 737s in the 737-600 through 900 series that were produced since May= =20 21, gives airlines 10 days to complete the review. Most of the 93 aircraft= =20 are in service, but some may be still at Boeing, FAA spokesman Paul=20 Takemoto said. Each plane has two modules that control hydraulic fluid to= =20 the flight control system. A failure of both modules could significantly=20 affect a plane's flight control systems by almost jamming the controls,=20 making the jetliner sluggish and very difficult to operate, Takemoto=20 said. He said the airworthiness order requires carriers to check the=20 serial numbers before flying again and replace those with the suspect=20 serial numbers. The FAA has no jurisdiction over foreign carriers, but they= =20 almost always follow its recommendations. To check the modules, "You just have to look up into the wheel well and=20 check the serial number," Takemoto said. The FAA said it's looking for a=20 recent batch of modules that has a high rate of failure. Fifteen modules=20 were found to be defective, four while in flight and 11 during inspections= =20 on the ground, Takemoto said. None caused an accident, he said. There are= =20 84 foreign aircraft with the modules from the bad batch and nine with U.S.= =20 carriers, but Takemoto said not all have been delivered. He also said some= =20 of those already delivered may not yet be in service. Three foreign=20 airlines reported Saturday they already had acted on Boeing's warnings=20 about the possibly defective parts. Australia's two main carriers, Qantas=20 and Virgin Blue, said they had grounded eight Boeing 737-800s to exchange=20 the parts. At least seven flights were canceled. In Ireland, the budget=20 carrier Ryanair grounded two 737s overnight for the repairs and returned=20 them to the fleet Saturday. A spokesman for the company that made the modules, European-based Smiths=20 Aerospace, had no immediate comment on the FAA order. James McKenna,=20 managing editor of Aviation Maintenance magazine, said the airplanes are=20 probably built so that if all of the flight control modules break, the=20 pilot still has some mechanical physical control of the airplane. "Still,"= =20 he said, "there's a possibility that this could lead to a=20 crash." Seventy-eight of the 93 aircraft with possibly faulty modules have= =20 two of the modules on them, Takemoto said. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (ReadyMix) http://www.readymix.co.tt/ (ReadyMix Cement Ltd) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************