(RTTNews) - Boeing Co., which is struggling to fix the issues related to its 737 MAX, has found "previously unreported concerns" with the plane's wiring, The New York Times reported.
The potential flaws were reported during the company's internal audit of the plane's safety in December, at the request of the US Federal Aviation Administration.
Citing a senior engineer at Boeing and people familiar with the matter, the report said the audit was conducted "to determine whether it had accurately assessed the dangers of key systems given new assumptions about how long it might take pilots to respond to emergencies."
The latest findings were with the wiring that helps control the tail of the plane. Boeing is checking whether two sections of critical wiring are too close together and could cause a short circuit, which could lead to a crash if pilots fail to respond correctly.
The Chicago-based planemaker is trying to determine whether such a situation could occur on a flight, and whether the wire bundles are needed to be separated in around 800 Max jets that have already been built. The issue is said to be relatively simple to fix, if required.
The new issues threaten the company's efforts to solve problems with the best-selling 737 MAX jet that were grounded since March last year by airlines worldwide. The move was after two deadly crashes within a short span of five months that killed a total of 346 people.
The company this week said it plans to halt production of the 737 MAX jet in mid-January and to reassign up to 3,000 workers that support the production. However, Boeing doesn't expect to lay off or furlough workers because of the production suspension. The company also said it is unclear when production of the 737 MAX would resume.
Last month, Boeing's chief executive officer Dennis Muilenburg had resigned after he repeatedly failed to contain the fallout from the 737 MAX crashes. Boeing's new chief executive, David Calhoun, will take charge on January 13.
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