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Boeing plans
to redesign
737 rudders

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By Randolph E. Schmid
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- After years of debate over the safety of the rudders on the Boeing 737, the manufacturer of the world's most widely used airliner has agreed to redesign the plane's rudder control.

The Federal Aviation Administration said yesterday that Boeing Co. already has begun working on the redesign under the agreement it reached with federal regulators.

More than 3,000 of the twin-jet airliners are in use and the plane has a good overall safety record, but its rudders have been suspect following a pair of fatal accidents in Colorado and Pennsylvania.

Three changes have been mandated previously in 737 rudder controls and officials said they have had no reports of rudder problems since they were implemented.

(In Hawaii, Aloha Airlines has a fleet of about 20 737s. The airline completed required rudder upgrades last year.)

"We will be mandating a redesign of the rudder system to ensure redundancies in the system," FAA spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said yesterday. "We feel confident that this plane is extremely safe at this point . . . but rudder redesign is taking this plane to the next level of safety," she said.

Boeing would pay the full cost of the retrofit, estimated at $240 million, according to the St. Petersburg Times, which along with ABC News first reported the agreement yesterday.

Boeing confirmed the redesign in an announcement today.

Because the redesign could take years to implement, Spitaliere said the FAA also would announce new training procedures for pilots to use in the event of rudder problems on the 737s now in use. The new training is a short-term step, while the redesign is the long-term measure intended to eliminate the need for such training.

Spitaliere said once Boeing's redesign was completed it would be submitted to the agency for approval. That was expected to lead to an airworthiness directive sometime next year ordering the change in all 737s. The changes would be done when the planes undergo routine maintenance.

Once that directive was issued the company would have about five years to make the changes in planes currently flying. The new design would be required in all newly made 737s.

The rudder is a moving section of the plane's vertical tail. Moving the rudder left or right causes the plane to turn in that direction.

Concern about the 737's rudders was prompted by the crash of a USAir 737 outside Pittsburgh in 1994 that killed 132 people and the 1991 crash of a United Airlines 737 at Colorado Springs, Colo., in which 25 died.