Airline Ordered to Check for Defects, Paper Reports

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered Northwest Airlines to examine 11 of its planes for possible safety defects, according to a published report.

The FAA warned that an instrument critical to controlling the plane has jammed at least six times on A320s operated by foreign carriers and in test flights, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported. The problem involves the loss of trim control, which would affect the nose-up and nose-down angle of the airplane.