Boeing resumes 767 Freighter Delivery 3 Months Later

FedEx Express received the first plane of the year while also waiting for planes from Air Tanzania, UPS Airlines, and the US Air Force.
Boeing, a producer of aircraft, recently spent three months without delivering any KC-46 Pegasus or 767 freighters. Based on the 767-200, which is already in service with numerous Air Forces worldwide, the KC-46 is an aerial refueling tanker.

In January, Boeing notified operators that it had discovered a problem with the paint primer used by a supplier in the central wing fuel tank of some KC-46A Pegasus and 767-300F aircraft. As a result, Boeing halted deliveries while fixing the issue in its current stock of finished aircraft.

A FedEx Express Boeing 767-300F with the registration N282FE was the first aircraft delivered. Prior to its delivery on Saturday, April 1, the plane was seen flying above Paine Field. Just before noon, the ship took off and flew down the Pacific coast before flying back up over Oregon and landing in Everett after a 2-hour, 20-minute voyage.

The freighter traveled on April 4 from Paine Field in Everett to the FexEx hub at Indianapolis International Airport. The flight (FX9030) took off almost 30 minutes early at 12:47 and traveled 3,500 miles (6,000 kilometers) across a large portion of the United States before arriving in Indiana at 19:19.

According to flight monitoring information, two more Boeing 767Fs are due for delivery very soon. The first is a UPS Airlines 767F with the registration number N378UP, which took off on April 4th, 2023. During the 23-minute flight, it headed north and circled Port Susan before landing at its starting point.

Also awaiting delivery is the first 767F for Air Tanzania, with the registration 5H-TCO. When it was discovered that someone within the government had raised the final invoice for the aircraft in an effort to cheat the State, the acquisition became the focus of a recent controversy. Nonetheless, on March 19, 2023, the inbound freighter of the African carrier flew a test flight under the flight number BOE300.

When contacted by Easy Flying, a spokesman for Boeing declined to give any additional information regarding impending deliveries or whose clients were receiving the aircraft.

The manufacturer has yet to deliver 27 aircraft to FedEx and the same number to UPS, in addition to the Air Tanzania Cargo planes. For the US Air Force, there are still 58 refueling tankers on order.
Before transferring the fuel tanks to Boeing for final assembly of the 767 variants, the center wing tank structure supplier told Boeing that it had not performed the necessary cleaning and paint adhesion testing procedures on the fuel tanks. AeroTime claims that the supplier’s ownership was transferred from Triumph Group to Daher last year.

The problem wasn’t thought to be urgently critical. Nonetheless, it was possible that a fuel tank structure that had been incorrectly painted and primed may clog fuel filters and restrict fuel flow to the aircraft’s engines.
It was confirmed to AeroTime by a representative of the US Air Force’s Air Mobility Command that “Initial assessment has not identified any immediate safety risk to the fleet,” and that there have been no documented incidents of non-conforming tank primer on KC-46A aircraft causing fuel contamination.