FAA addresses pilot seat malfunctions on Boeing 747 aircraft

Feedback on this directive came from entities such as The Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), which supported it without change. UPS also commented but provided only editorial corrections. The FAA accepted just one of these corrections.

This directive impacts an estimated 162 Boeing 747s registered in the United States. It retains inspection actions from a previous directive issued in December 2019 and includes both one-time and repetitive checks of the horizontal movement system (HMS) for pilots' seats.

On-condition actions specified by the FAA may involve adjustments to control lever cables, overhauls of HMS components, inspections of manual control levers for each seat, installation of serviceable seats, clearing foreign object debris (FOD), replacement of horizontal actuators, and operational tests for adjusted control level cables. The effective date for this directive is March 19, 2025.

In recent years, similar directives have been issued by the FAA concerning seat issues on other Boeing aircraft models like the Boeing 767 due to reports of uncommanded movements in pilot seats. Notably, after an incident involving a LATAM Airlines Boeing 787-9 that resulted in more than 50 injuries due to sudden altitude loss while en route from Sydney Airport to Santiago Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport via Auckland Airport in August 2024.

Following this event and additional reported incidents by Boeing involving uncommanded seat movements on its aircraft up until June 2024, another AD was issued mandating inspections for missing or cracked rotor switch caps and non-functional switch cover assemblies on Boeing's Dreamliner series: models 787-8 through -10 inclusive.