China has order an immediate inspection of the wing slats on all Boeing 737 jetliners operated by domestic airlines in wake of an explosion that destroyed a China Airlines 737 in Japan last week.

Carriers should conduct a detailed inspection within 20 days to be sure that the downstop assembly, which limits how far the slats can emerge from the wing, is installed properly, said the state's General Administration of Civil Aviation Tuesday.

The inspections will cover nearly 300 Boeing 737-600, 737-700, 737-800 and 737-900 jetliners on the mainland, a senior official with the administration told Xinhua news agency yesterday.

Slats slide out the front edge of the main wings during takeoff and landing to stabilize the aircraft, along with flaps that come out of the wings' rear edge.

Additionally, it ordered that the process be repeated at least once every 3,000 takeoff and landing cycles.

The China Airlines Boeing 737-800 exploded in a fireball on August 20 seconds after all 157 passengers and eight crew members evacuated safely onto the tarmac at Okinawa's Naha airport in southern Japan.

Three days later, investigators found that a bolt from a right wing slat had pierced the fuel tank of the plane, leading to a massive oil leak.

Yesterday, Boeing also issued a similar emergency airworthiness directive for all newer Boeing 737 jetliners. That directive covers 2,350 new jets.

A spokesperson for a major domestic airline told China Business New yesterday that the explosion might have been caused by negligence in maintenance rather than bugs in design, according to Netease.com.

However, Taiwan-based China Airlines told the newspaper that three inspections of the plane's airframe in May, July and early August showed no problems. Two checks of the engines on July 6 and 8 suggested the plane was ok.
?
(Shanghai Daily August 29, 2007)