FAA Orders Inspection of Airbus Planes

Federal regulators Wednesday ordered inspections of 200 Airbus aircraft to prevent their front wheels from locking sideways, two months after a JetBlue Airways Corp. plane carrying 146 people was forced to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles.

U.S. airlines must determine whether certain braking and steering units were installed in the planes’ nose landing gear, the Federal Aviation Administration said in its order. Any landing gear with those units must undergo additional inspections and may need to be replaced, the agency said.

A JetBlue A320 jet made a safe emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 21 after pilots found the front landing gear stuck with the wheels turned 90 degrees. The cause was the failure of some lugs and a braking and steering control unit, FAA spokesman Les Dorr said.

The order covers A318, A319, A320 and A321 models and would affect 650 planes worldwide if other aviation regulators ordered similar reviews, Dorr said.

U.S. airlines must begin inspections Wednesday and complete any work within 90 days, he said.

Airbus issued instructions Oct. 18 on how to perform the inspections, the FAA said. JetBlue has finished examinations on its fleet and found no problems, an airline spokeswoman said.