FAA Says Boeing Needs to Tighten Quality Controls, WSJ Reports

Seattle, April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co., the world's biggest planemaker, needs to maintain stricter quality control over its suppliers, the Federal Aviation Administration has concluded, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a company spokeswoman. A yet-to-be-released four-month FAA review of Boeing's
assembly lines points to vendor quality as one of the major issues Boeing needs to improve, the spokeswoman said. Boeing has tightened quality controls over heat-treated aluminum alloys from Alcoa Inc. and Kaiser Aluminum Corp. after some of the aluminum proved to be defective, the paper said.

Boeing said last Friday it's fixing a fuel-tank part that might crack in some 767 jetliners after a worker discovered a hairline crack in one of the parts.

Apr/06/2000