Dozens of Boeing’s 777s grounded after fire

WASHINGTON: Boeing said on Monday that dozens of its 777 model planes were grounded globally after the engine of a United Airlines plane caught fire and scattered debris over a suburb of Denver, Colorado.

It is a fresh blow for the beleaguered US aviation giant that was forced to ground another fleet of planes after a series of deadly crashes.

Boeing said 128 of its 777 planes with Pratt & Whitney engines will stop flying after the fire Saturday that forced the United plane to make an emergency landing. “I have just had confirmation that all the 777s equipped with this engine have been grounded,” a Boeing spokeswoman told AFP in a text message.

United, Korean Air and Japan’s two main airlines confirmed they had already suspended operations of 62 planes fitted with the same family of engines. The US National Transportation and Safety Board is also investigating the incident in which no one was hurt.

Boeing warned similarly fitted planes should be taken out of service until the Federal Aviation Authority had determined an inspection procedure.

“While the NTSB investigation is ongoing, we recommended suspending operations of the 69 in-service and 59 in-storage 777 aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines,” the company said.

Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) said they had respectively grounded 13 and 19 planes using PW4000 engines but had avoided flight cancellations by using other aircraft.

The Japanese transport ministry said it had ordered stricter inspections of the engine after a JAL 777 plane flying from Haneda to Naha experienced trouble with “an engine in the same family” in December.

United said it had voluntarily removed 24 Boeing 777 planes from service and expected “only a small number of customers to be inconvenienced.”

South Korea’s transport ministry said it had no immediate plans to ground planes, adding it was monitoring the situation.

But Korean Air, the country’s largest airline and flag carrier, said it had grounded all six of its Boeing 777s with PW4000 engines currently in operation.

“We have decided to ground all our PW 4000 powered 777s, and we expect the FAA’s updated protocol soon,” the company told AFP in an emailed statement.

The FAA earlier ordered extra inspections of some passenger jets.

Steve Dickson, the head of the regulator, said he had consulted with experts and that some airplanes would “likely” be removed from service.

“I have directed them to issue an Emergency Airworthiness Directive that would require immediate or stepped-up inspections of Boeing 777 airplanes equipped with certain Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines,” he said in a statement.

Dickson added that a preliminary safety data review pointed to a need for additional checks of the jet engine’s fan blades, which were unique to the engine model and only used on 777 planes.

Flight UA328 had been headed from Denver to Honolulu when it experienced an engine failure shortly after departure. Residents in the Broomfield suburb found large pieces of the plane scattered.