WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have approved a Boeing procedure to fix about 100 jets that have been idled for the past month because of improper electrical grounding of some components.
A Boeing spokesman said Thursday that the company issued service bulletins to airlines and will help them perform the work to fix the planes.
The approval by the Federal Aviation Administration came shortly after the agency’s administrator, Stephen Dickson, told a congressional panel he had “absolute confidence” in the safety of the Max and that fixing the latest problem with the troubled jetliner would be “pretty straightforward.”
The electrical issue was another setback for Boeing’s best-selling plane. It came just a few months after the planes resumed flying following two deadly crashes and a 20-month worldwide grounding of all Max jets. The electrical issue appeared to be unrelated to the automated flight-control system that played a role in the crashes.
Boeing says that since the planes resumed flying late last year, they have made 30,000 flights for 21 different airlines without incident.
Shares of Boeing rose nearly 3% in morning trading.
