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What is the "pickle fork" that cracked on some Boeing 737 NGs?

Short answer

It's the main structural member joining the fuselage and the wings. There are four per aircraft, one on each side of the forward and rear attachment frames. It was designed for the aircraft's full 90,000-cycle life, but cracks appeared on two aircraft with fewer than 40,000 cycles.

Published: October 31, 2026 · Updated: October 31, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

What is the "pickle fork" that cracked on some Boeing 737 NGs?
Gear Actuation Boeing 737-800 EL AL approaching VIE DSC 3259wPeter Haas (CC BY SA), vía commons

Where it is and what it does

The pickle fork is the main structural member joining the fuselage and the wings. The frames it belongs to are located at the wing's forward and rear spars, and their lower parts serve to transfer most of the load from the wing to the fuselage. Each aircraft carries four pickle forks in total, one on each side of the forward and rear attachment frames. The component was designed to last the aircraft's entire life, 90,000 operating cycles.

The cracks

Cracks were found on two aircraft that had accumulated fewer than 40,000 cycles. The affected Jet Airways aircraft had accumulated more than 33,500 flight cycles before conversion work revealed the damage. In earlier testing, the design had been cycled well beyond 90,000 cycles without that type of cracking being detected.

The inspection directive

An airworthiness directive took immediate effect on Thursday 3 October 2019 and required operators to repair any cracks they found. The directive requires inspecting aircraft that exceed 22,600 flight cycles, with immediate compliance for those exceeding 30,000 cycles. The inspections are easy to carry out and only add an hour to routine maintenance, unless cracks are found. More than 7,000 737NGs, including the 600, 700, 800 and 900 variants, operate worldwide, of which 1,911 are registered in the United States.

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