U.S. Airlines Must Check Plane Seats Made by Kioto for Safety, FAA Says
U.S. airlines must determine whether Koito Industries Ltd. seats on 278 planes meet safety standards and remove those that don’t, aviation regulators said.
The order, which covers 40,365 seats on planes made by companies such as Airbus SAS and Boeing Co., would cost about $875,000, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency is scheduled to publish the directive tomorrow.
Koito may have to fix as many as 150,000 seats in about 1,000 aircraft owned by 32 airlines after falsifying tests and making unauthorized design changes, Japan’s transport ministry said Feb. 8. The European Aviation Safety Agency last year withdrew approval for the Yokohama, Japan-based company’s seats.
Airbus and Boeing have said some aircraft deliveries were delayed because of the need to make safety checks of the seats.
Carriers must replace seats, or parts of them, within either six years or two to three years, depending on the types of flaws found in inspections, according to the FAA order.
To contact the reporter on this story: John Hughes in Washington at jhughes5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story Larry Liebert at or lliebert@bloomberg.net
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