Airline cancels flights to check engines

In the wake of an in-flight engine failure that killed a Southwest Airlines passenger, the carrier has started ultrasonic engine inspections covering virtually its entire fleet of more than 700 planes.

The Dallas-based carrier canceled 40 flights over the weekend as it moved to conduct the inspections of the fan blades on all of its CFM56 engines over the next 30 days, exceeding the requirement of a Federal Aviation Administration order last week.

The accident took place when an engine fan blade fractured, sending shrapnel into the fuselage, killing Jennifer Riordan, a bank executive and mother of two from New Mexico. The flight from New York to Dallas made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

The FAA and CFM International, the manufacturer of the CFM56 engines, both called on Friday for ultrasonic inspections within 20 days of engines with at least 30,000 cycles — or takeoffs and landings. The FAA said its order would apply to 352 engines on planes flown in the U.S. and 681 engines flown worldwide by various carriers.

Southwest said it will inspect all of the roughly 700 Boeing 737-700 and 737-800 model Southwest planes that are installed with CFM56 engines. Only about a dozen planes in the Southwest fleet will not need to be inspected because they don’t use CFM engines.

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