Boeing delays delivery over rust issues

Global - The Boeing Company, trying to ramp up production after an eight-week strike, will be delaying its Boeing 737s again after realising its supplier failed to protect some fasteners from rusting.

The affected parts are inch-long fasteners called nutplates used to attach wiring and other parts to the aircraft body and have been in use since August 2007, Vicki Ray, a spokesperson in Seattle for the company told local media.

Ray stressed that the part was structurally sound, and that rust problem was not an immediate safety-of-flight issue but one that would lead to early corrosion.

Approximately 30% of the nutplates have not been coated in the chemical cadmium that is needed to stop them from corroding the aluminium fuselage, Ray says, adding that there are thousands of nutplates used on each plane.

The nutplates were made by one of three suppliers to Spirit AeroSystems which builds the fuselages, local media reported.

The company said it is working with the Federal Aviation Administration to inspect and repair planes that area already in the market. The rust issue adds a new complication in the company's efforts to up production after a two-month strike by machinists. Boeing has not given customers a new delivery date for their planes.