Safety checks for Boeing 737s
A Ryanair 737-800 experienced severe vibrations en route from the Netherlands to Spain
Sunday March 14 2010
The US Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency airworthiness directive demanding that airlines check a mechanism that controlled tail flaps on about 600 Boeing 737s.
The directive was issued and concerns flaps on the horizontal tails of the jets.
On March 2, a Ryanair 737-800 en route from the Netherlands to Madrid, Spain, experienced severe vibrations in flight and had to make an unscheduled landing.
Inspection afterward found "extensive damage" to the left elevator, which is a movable flap on the horizontal tail that controls the pitch of the airplane, up or down.
The agency said some of the jets must be inspected within 12 days, and the rest within 30 days.
FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said about half the affected airplanes are operating in the US.
