BOEING GROUNDS 777s AFTER ENGINE FIRE
Boeing said on Monday that dozens of its 777 aircraft were grounded globally after the engine of a United Airlines plane caught fire and scattered debris over a suburb of Denver, Colorado
THE TRIGGER
United Airlines halted operations of 24 of its planes in the wake of the incident involving one of its fleet over the weekend. The incident on United Airlines Flight 328 from Denver to Honolulu took place shortly after it took off on Saturday with 231 passengers and 10 crew members on board. The Boeing 777 landed safely back at Denver and nobody was injured by the falling debris. Footage of the burning engine was filmed by a passenger aboard the flight, while people on the ground captured scenes of the plane overhead and scattered aircraft parts near houses. The US Federal Aviation Administration ordered fan-blade checks on PW4077 engines made by Raytheon Technologies Corp.’s Pratt & Whitney division.
TROUBLED TIMES RIPPLE EFFECT
Boeing said 128 of it 777 planes with Pratt & Whitney engines will stop flying after the fire. The FAA has ordered extra inspections of some passenger jets after the incident. The US National Transportation and Safety Board also said it is investigating the incident, while United Airlines, Asiana, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways grounded their planes earlier. Japan's transport ministry had earlier said it had ordered stricter inspections of the engine after a Japan Airlines 777 plane flying from Haneda to Naha experienced trouble with “an engine in the same family” in December. Asiana Airlines, South Korea's second-largest carrier, had also said it would not fly any of its seven currently operational 777s.
The engine failure is unwelcome news for Boeing following several high-profile accidents. The manufacturer's 737 MAX was grounded worldwide in March 2019 after 346 people died in two crashes – the 2019 Lion Air disaster in Indonesia and an Ethiopian Airlines crash the following year. Investigators said a main cause of both crashes was a faulty flight handling system known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. Boeing was forced to revamp the system and implement new pilot training protocols. This month, the aircraft made its first commercial flight in Europe since the grounding. The company also halted deliveries of its 787 Dreamliners to check for manufacturing flaws.