Washington – FAA Orders Inspections of all Newer 737s.

Washington – Federal regulators ordered inspections of the wing slats on all newer Boeing 737 jetliners based on findings about the fire that destroyed a China Airlines 737 in Japan last week.

The orders apply to the owners and operators of 783 U.S. airplanes but will likely be imposed by other countries on the entire worldwide fleet of 2,287 newer 737s, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Les Dorr said Monday.

Dorr said the move was prompted by the fire in Japan and one other incident.

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.

Last Thursday, investigators in Japan found that a bolt from a right wing slat had pierced the fuel tank of the Taiwanese jetliner that caught fire after landing on the Japanese resort island of Okinawa. All 165 people aboard evacuated safely seconds before the plane exploded.

A fuel leak through that hole likely caused the fire on the China Airlines Boeing 737-800, said Kazushige Daiki, chief investigator at Japan’s Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission. [ap]