FAA Pulls Its Proposed Boeing 787 Radio Fix Because the Software Update Does Not Cure the Problem

The document is a withdrawal of a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) under docket FAA-2025-0204, project identifier AD-2024-00327-T. It was signed on 5 October 2026 by the acting deputy director of the FAA's Integrated Certificate Management Division within the Aircraft Certification Service, and it appears in Volume 91, No. 197 of the Federal Register. The NPRM it withdraws was originally published on 26 February 2025.

The FAA describes the action as neither a proposed rule nor a final rule. Because it only withdraws a proposal, the notice states that it falls outside the usual executive-order and regulatory-flexibility analyses, and so it carries no cost estimate of its own.

The agency states that it later determined the software version named in the NPRM "does not correct the unsafe condition." On that basis, the notice says, the proposal is withdrawn. The FAA adds that the withdrawal does not prevent future rulemaking and does not commit the agency to any particular course of action. It says it may consider other rulemaking once an adequate solution has been developed.

The condition behind the proposal

The 2025 proposal was prompted by reports that VHF radio frequencies were moving between the active and standby windows of the tuning control panel (TCP) without input from the flight crew. The tuning control panel is the flight-deck unit used to select radio frequencies.

According to the FAA, uncommanded changes of this kind could cause missed communications with air traffic control, such as an amended clearance or another critical instruction. The notice lists the possible consequences as loss of safe separation, collision or runway incursion. Those are the agency's stated risk categories for the unsafe condition and not a description of any specific event.

The NPRM would have required operators to update the TCP operational software (OPS) and to carry out a software configuration check. Aviacionline, reporting on the proposal when it appeared in February 2025, said the work involved verifying that part number COL43-0025-0004 or later was installed. It put the affected US-registered fleet at 157 aircraft, with three further aircraft excluded because they had received the update in production. The same outlet reported the FAA's estimate of the compliance cost at $127.50 per aircraft, or $20,017.50 across the fleet, with Boeing supplying the update at no charge. Those figures come from that report and from the original proposal rather than from the withdrawal notice, which does not repeat them.

Why the software was judged inadequate

The withdrawal notice walks through four sets of comments that the FAA received on the NPRM and how it responded to each.

Boeing asked the FAA to delay issuing a final AD until a newer OPS version is built into production. The company said the version named in the NPRM, which is in Issue 001 of Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin B787-81205-SB230051-00 RB dated 20 May 2024, does not fully address the uncommanded frequency changes, based on further fleet reports. The FAA responded that it agrees the version does not correct the unsafe condition.

Kenya Airways and ProTech Aero Services Limited asked the agency to cite a later bulletin instead. That is Issue 002, dated 24 February 2025. The FAA declined. It found that Issue 002 installs the same software part number as Issue 001 and is therefore also inadequate.

Qatar Airways told the FAA that it had modified its affected 787s using Issue 001 but that its flight crews were still reporting similar problems. The airline said it had passed those reports to Boeing and to the parts manufacturer for root-cause investigation, and it asked the FAA to evaluate the new reports before issuing the AD. The FAA said it was aware that multiple operators had raised concerns and was withdrawing the proposal.

The Foundation for Aviation Safety asked the FAA to clarify the root cause, in particular whether the problem is confined to software or could involve an electrical manufacturing defect. The FAA's reply was that it knows of operator reports about software reliability and service difficulties after installation, that Boeing is analysing the root cause, and that further rulemaking may follow. The notice does not say whether an electrical defect has been ruled in or out.

Simple Flying, in April 2025, had already reported two of these concerns from the public docket. It said Qatar Airways had told the FAA that its crews still saw the issue on aircraft already modified with new loadable software parts, and that American Airlines had asked the agency to narrow the AD so that it applied only to aircraft with software earlier than a specified version. The outlet noted that, apart from Kenya Airways, few other carriers had commented at that point.

Not the first time

The withdrawal is the second on this subject. The notice records that the FAA issued an earlier NPRM on the same unsafe condition on 25 March 2021, published in the Federal Register on 7 April 2021. It withdrew that proposal on 31 August 2021, published on 9 September 2021, because the software update was not effective.

The Foundation for Aviation Safety's comment on the 2025 proposal drew attention to that history, and the FAA's response does not dispute it. The 2026 notice therefore describes two successive software-based proposals that the agency has abandoned because the update specified in each did not resolve the condition.

What operators and passengers should take from it

The practical effect is narrow. A withdrawn NPRM was never a binding requirement, so no operator has been relieved of an obligation by this notice. What changes is the expectation. Operators that had been preparing to comply with the proposed software update will not now be required to install it under the proposal. The notice does not say whether operators should keep or remove the software already fitted, and it does not say that any 787 should be restricted from operating.

The FAA does not state in the notice that any accident or serious incident has resulted from the frequency changes, and none of the sources reviewed for this article reported one.

What happens next

The notice leaves several things open, and it states them rather than hiding them.

First, there is no replacement software or timeline. The FAA says only that it may pursue rulemaking when an adequate solution exists. Boeing's analysis of the root cause is described as ongoing, with no completion date.

Second, the question of whether the fault lies in software, hardware or manufacturing has been put to the FAA directly and has not been answered in the notice. The agency refers to software reliability and service difficulties but stops short of attributing the uncommanded changes to any single cause.

Third, the notice does not say whether any other regulator will act. The proposal was a US action covering US-registered aircraft, and the notice does not refer to a counterpart directive from another aviation authority. Readers should consult the relevant regulator for any parallel measures.

For the Federal Register record, the docket remains available at regulations.gov under FAA-2025-0204, where the original NPRM and the comments summarised above can be read. The FAA lists a named aviation safety engineer at its Des Moines, Washington, office as the contact for technical questions.

The episode is a useful illustration of how the AD process works when a proposed remedy fails in the field. Comments from airlines and the manufacturer, based on fleet experience, fed directly into the decision to pull the proposal. The agency then chose to withdraw instead of finalising a directive it no longer considered effective.

Sources

• Federal Register / GovInfo, FAA, "Airworthiness Directives; The Boeing Company Airplanes" (withdrawal of NPRM, FR Doc. 2026-21009, 14 October 2026)
• Aviacionline, "FAA Proposes Airworthiness Directive for Boeing 787 Due to VHF Frequency Anomalies" (28 February 2025)
• Simple Flying, "FAA Prepares Directive To Fix Radio Issues On Boeing 787 Dreamliners" (5 April 2025)