Boeing tells airlines to check pilot seats after report that an accidental shift led plane to plunge

Boeing is telling airlines to inspect switches on pilots’ seats after a published report said an accidental seat movement might have caused a jetliner's sudden plunge earlier this week. Boeing said on Friday it recommended that airlines inspect the cockpit seats on their 787 Dreamliners the next time they perform maintenance on the planes. The Wall Street Journal reported that a flight attendant on the LATAM Airlines flight traveling between Australia and New Zealand on Monday might have accidentally hit a switch on the back of a cockpit seat, pushing the pilot into the controls and causing the nose of the plane to tilt down. About 50 people were injured.