Global Fastener News

Missing Fasteners Prompt Fleet-wide Aircraft Inspection

Jason Sandefur

MEDIA SPOTLIGHT
Editor’s Note: Articles in Media Spotlight are excerpts from publications or broadcasts that show the industry what the public is reading or hearing about fasteners and fastener companies.

The U.S. Navy issued an “airframe bulletin” calling for fleet-wide inspection of its V-22 Osprey after officials found one aircraft with five fasteners missing from a single section, Inside the Navy reports. Four subsequent V-22s were found to have loose fasteners in the same section.
“They were not as tight as they should have been,” Navy spokesman James Darcy stated.
The V-22 Osprey is manufactured by Textron Inc.’s Bell Helicopter division and Boeing. Records show the fasteners were properly installed at the Bell factory in Amarillo, TX, when the aircraft was manufactured, Darcy told Inside the Navy.
The Navy is directing maintenance crews to inspect the axis gearboxes in each aircraft within the next 15 flight hours. The gearboxes, secured by 22 fasteners, must remain stable if the aircraft is to retain its ability to fly on a single engine in the event engine failure.
Darcy maintained that the missing fasteners on one V-22s and loose fasteners on other V-22s might be unrelated. Program officials are reportedly “exploring a theory that the missing parts may have been removed from [the V-22] at some point by a maintenance worker who neglected to replace them,” Inside the Navy reported. The incident is likely to prompt regular fastener inspections on all V-22s, Darcy explained. �2006 FastenerNews.com