(WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - US aviation regulators are to propose on Monday mandatory inspections and, potentially, the replacement of suspect parts on nearly 1,600 jetliners to prevent serious flight failures, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The pair of proposed Federal Aviation Administration safety directives are related to certain Boeing Co and Embraer SA jets and slated to be formally published Monday in the Federal Register, the Journal said in a report published on its website Saturday.

The directives are unusual because they are each intended to counter a single defect that can result in flight emergencies, the report said.

The FAA is moving to require US operators of certain versions of the popular Boeing 737 model to check for possible corrosion of attachments for the horizontal stabilizer, part of the tail section.

Most essential systems on commercial jets have backups, so a single-point failure or malfunction cannot cause a crash, the Journal said.

But in the documents to be made public on Monday, the FAA says a single defective component type has the potential to immediately end safe flight.

The agency is not, however, ordering immediate fixes, which means officials have determined the hazards are not imminent and do not require emergency action, the Journal added.