Federal aviation regulators order United Airlines to intensify inspections of all Boeing 777s equipped with the type of engine that suffered a catastrophic failure Saturday about Denver. United said it will temporarily withdraw these aircraft from service.
The ads it came a day after United Airlines Flight 328 had to make an emergency landing at Denver International Airport after the right engine stalled just after takeoff. Parts of the engine housing, a Pratt & Whitney PW4000, rained in suburban neighborhoods.
Separately, Dutch authorities were investigating a surprisingly similar incident in which a Boeing 747-400 cargo plane dropped engine parts shortly after taking off from Maastricht airport on Saturday, according to Reuters. An airport spokesman said small pieces of metal were scattered around the southern city of Meerssen. There was some damage and one woman was injured. He landed safely.
The plane in the United States, with 231 passengers and 10 crew on board, also landed safely. No one on board or ashore was reported injured, according to authorities.
Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Steve Dickson said in a statement on Sunday that, based on an initial review of safety data, inspectors “concluded that the inspection range for hollow fan blades that are unique to this engine model, which is used only on Boeing 777 aircraft. “
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The National Transportation Safety Board said in a separate statement that two of the engine fan blades fractured and the rest of the fan blades were “damaged.” The NTSB warned that it was too early to draw conclusions about how the incident happened.
Boeing said it recommends “suspending the operations of the 69,777 in service and 59 in storage” with Pratt & Whitney engines worldwide “until the FAA identifies the appropriate inspection protocol.”
Pratt & Whitney issued a statement saying it “has sent a team to work with researchers” and that it is “actively coordinating with operators and regulators to support the revised inspection interval” of the engines involved.
The video posted on Twitter showed that the engine was completely engulfed in flames as the plane flew through the air. Frozen images of different videos taken by a passenger sitting slightly in front of the engine and posted on Twitter appeared to show a broken fan blade in the engine.
United is the only U.S. airline with the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 in its fleet, the FAA said. United said it currently has 24 of the 777 in service.
United said it will work closely with the FAA and the NTSB “to determine what additional steps are needed to ensure these aircraft meet our stringent safety standards and can return to service.”
The NTSB said the cabin voice recorder and flight data log were transported to its Washington lab for data to be downloaded and analyzed. NTSB investigations can take up to a year or more, although in the most important cases, the agency usually publishes some research material in the middle of the process.
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Airlines in Japan and South Korea also operate aircraft with the Pratt & Whitney engine. Japan Airways and All Nippon Airways have decided to stop operating 32 aircraft combined with this engine, according to Nikkei.
Nikkei reported that Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism also ordered the withdrawal of aircraft service and the ministry said an engine of the same PW4000 family suffered unspecified problems in a JAL 777 flying at Haneda from Naha on December 4th. stricter inspections in response.
Korean Air said Monday it landed its 16,777 with Pratt & Whitney engines.
Boeing said it “supports the decision … of the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau” and “FAA action” to suspend operations of the 777s owned by Pratt & Whitney engines.
“We are working with these regulators as they take action while these aircraft are on the ground and Pratt & Whitney is doing more inspections,” Boeing added.
In the Netherlands, Reuters quoted the airport spokesman as saying the photos appeared to show parts that fell to the ground were parts of an engine blade, but were being investigated.
Witnesses said they saw an engine on fire. The plane landed safely at Liege Airport in Belgium, about 19 kilometers south of Maastricht.
The cargo plane had a Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engine, a smaller version of the United Airlines 777 in Denver, according to Dutch authorities.