Aloha Airlines, which has a fleet of 26 Boeing 737 jets in various configurations, will have to modify the tail-control mechanisms of all them under a new Federal Aviation Administration safety rule. Aloha to beat deadline
for rudder fixesA new FAA rule requires
modifications on Boeing 737sStar-Bulletin staff and wire
However, Aloha said all the work will be done by June, well ahead of the six-year deadline set by the FAA.
Aloha has an interisland fleet of 18 Boeing 737-200s and those planes will all be modified in Honolulu, said an Aloha spokesman, Stu Glauberman. Aloha's eight 737-700s in its mainland service will be fixed during routine maintenance on the mainland, Glauberman said.
The FAA announced yesterday it will give airlines six years to install new rudder controls on all Boeing 737s, the world's most widely used airliner.
The redesigned control system is the last of four fixes the FAA ordered after a 737 plunged to the ground in Colorado in 1991 and another had a fatal dive in Pennsylvania 1994.
Aloha met all of the earlier FAA tail check and modification requirements ahead of deadlines.
FAA spokesman Les Dorr Jr. said the earlier changes made the 737 rudder system "as safe as it can be made with the existing system.
"The changes required now will take it to another level of redundancy and make it safer," he said.
Aloha's competitor Hawaiian Airlines does not use Boeing 737s.