FAA Orders Inspection of Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday ordered that 174 Boeing 747 jumbo jets similar to the one that crashed Sunday in the Netherlands be inspected for possibly defective engine mounts.

The order will affect Boeing 747 series 100, 200 and 300 cargo planes flown by American, America West, Continental, Evergreen International, Federal Express, Northwest, Tower, TWA, United, UPS and the now defunct Pan Am airlines, the FAA said. The inspections are to be completed within the next 60 days.

Foreign carriers using the planes are expected to follow suit on a voluntary basis.

Officials say an engine apparently fell from the El Al cargo jet before the plane crashed into an apartment complex near Amsterdam Sunday night, killing more than 100. A China Airlines 747 cargo jet crashed in Taiwan last year, killing all five crew members, after the plane lost two engines.

Dutch officials on Friday sharply reduced their estimate of the toll of the El Al crash. They now say up to 120 may have died. Earlier estimates ranged as high as 250. The new figure would still make Sunday’s air disaster the worst in history in terms of ground casualties, surpassing the 1976 crash of a Boeing 707 cargo plane in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, that killed 77.

The revised estimate was based on new police lists of people believed missing and included the retrieved remains of 51 victims. Officials said unreliable city records and overestimation of illegal aliens living in the buildings led to an overblown original estimate. But Mayor Ed van Thijn said the toll may never be precisely ascertained.

The FAA order calls for the airlines to check pins that fasten the engine pylons to the wings, noting that there have been reports of pins weakened by corrosion and cracking. The agency stressed that there is still no hard evidence linking pin failure to the El Al and China Airlines crashes.