Someone just sent me this news clip:
Sept. 12, 2003 -- (Wichita, Kan., Business Journal/Jerry Seibenmark) -- A Learjet 45 operated by FedEx is among the first Bombardier Aerospace Learjet 45s to re-enter service nearly a month after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the fleet of Wichita-built business jets for a faulty assembly in the tail. Bombardier expects to have retrofitted approximately 230 Learjet 45s -- the entire fleet -- with a new horizontal pitch trim actuator in the next two weeks, the company said in a statement. An airworthiness directive issued by the FAA in mid-August said an acme screw and nut within the assembly of the Learjet 45's horizontal stabilizer actuator could develop a "brittle fracture," causing a rapid change in the pitch of the airplane's nose, which happened to one Learjet 45 flight earlier this year. Following that incident, an airworthiness directive was issued by the FAA in late March calling for replacement of the acme screw and nut with an improved version of the assembly, a Bombardier Aerospace spokesman said last month. That replacement was accomplished, the spokesman said. The August grounding, however, was the result of the FAA requiring "formal evidence" that the replacement assembly meets all the certification requirements, the spokesman said.
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When did this happen? Were there any accidents/incidents that led to this move by the FAA?
--03M
Sept. 12, 2003 -- (Wichita, Kan., Business Journal/Jerry Seibenmark) -- A Learjet 45 operated by FedEx is among the first Bombardier Aerospace Learjet 45s to re-enter service nearly a month after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the fleet of Wichita-built business jets for a faulty assembly in the tail. Bombardier expects to have retrofitted approximately 230 Learjet 45s -- the entire fleet -- with a new horizontal pitch trim actuator in the next two weeks, the company said in a statement. An airworthiness directive issued by the FAA in mid-August said an acme screw and nut within the assembly of the Learjet 45's horizontal stabilizer actuator could develop a "brittle fracture," causing a rapid change in the pitch of the airplane's nose, which happened to one Learjet 45 flight earlier this year. Following that incident, an airworthiness directive was issued by the FAA in late March calling for replacement of the acme screw and nut with an improved version of the assembly, a Bombardier Aerospace spokesman said last month. That replacement was accomplished, the spokesman said. The August grounding, however, was the result of the FAA requiring "formal evidence" that the replacement assembly meets all the certification requirements, the spokesman said.
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When did this happen? Were there any accidents/incidents that led to this move by the FAA?
--03M
