Not only Boeing planes grounded

DISASTER: SAFETY BOARD ORDERS LOOK AT ENGINES

Those fitted with certain Pratt & Whitney PW4000 ‘must be inspected’.

US aviation regulators ordered inspections of all Pratt & Whitney engines similar to the one that broke up on a Boeing 777 passenger plane over Denver at the weekend, directing the tests be carried out before any return to service.

The spectacular accident, in which an engine burst into flames and scattered debris over a Denver suburb shortly after takeoff for Honolulu, led to scores of Boeing 777s being grounded worldwide. No one was injured.

“US operators of airplanes equipped with certain Pratt &

Whitney PW4000 engines [must] inspect these engines before further flight,” the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.

The engine maker said it would comply, examining 125 planes with blades similar to those that failed on the Boeing 777, using thermal acoustic imaging (TAI) inspection “to confirm airworthiness.”

“Pratt & Whitney is coordinating all actions with Boeing, airline operators and regulators. The safe operation of the fleet is our top priority,” the company said.

The regulator said it was issuing the order “as a result of a fanblade failure that occurred Saturday on a Boeing 777-200 that had just departed from Denver International Airport”.

The FAA said “TAI technology can detect cracks on the interior surfaces of the hollow fan blades, or in areas that cannot be seen during a visual inspection”.

Metal fatigue has emerged as the chief suspect in the failure.

FAA chief Steve Dickson said it was “fortunate there were no fatalities or injuries.”

The near-miss over Denver was a fresh setback for Boeing, which only recently resumed deliveries of the long-grounded 737 MAX, following two fatal crashes.

It also raises fresh questions about the FAA, which was attacked for its oversight of Boeing in the certification of the MAX jets and about whether maintenance was adequate on the plane.

Even before the Denver incident, US air safety regulators had been weighing stricter inspections on the jets and their Pratt & Whitney engines, US officials said.

The FAA reviewed inspection records and maintenance history after a Japan Airlines fan blade incident in December “to determine the cause of the fracture and was evaluating whether to adjust blade inspections,” a spokesman said.