Jet-engine inspections ordered; apologies and cash

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday ordered ultrasound inspections of hundreds of jet engines like the one that blew apart at 32,000 feet in a deadly accident aboard a Southwest Airlines plane.

The agency said the order affects 352 engines in the U.S. on new-generation twin-engine Boeing 737s, a workhorse jet widely used by airlines around the world.

The National Transportation Safety Board believes one of the engine fan blades snapped on the Southwest flight Tuesday, hurling debris that broke a window and led to the death of a passenger who was sucked partway out of the 737.

The jet, which was headed from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard, made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

Investigators said the fan blade that broke off was showing signs of metal fatigue — cracks from repeated use that are too small to be seen by the naked eye.

The FAA acted after engine maker CFM International issued a service bulletin Friday recommending even wider inspections than it called for last June.

The FAA order and CFM’s service bulletin reflected concerns that more engines could have faulty fan blades than originally thought.

Under the FAA order, all CFM 56-7B engines that have gone through at least 30,000 takeoffs or landings must be inspected within 20 days.

In its own service bulletin Friday, CFM, a joint venture between General Electric Co. and France’s Safran SA, went further, recommending inspections by the end of August of all engines that have gone through at least 20,000 flights.

Altogether, CFM 56-7B engines are on about 1,800 of the 737s in service in the U.S. and about 6,400 worldwide.

Jennifer Riordan, a 43-year-old bank executive from Albuquerque, New Mexico, died in Tuesday’s accident.

A public memorial service for Riordan is set for Sunday in Albuquerque.

The NTSB also blamed metal fatigue for the engine failure on a Southwest 737 in Florida in 2016 that was able to land safely.

Meanwhile, Southwest has sent a letter of apology, $5,000 cheque and $1,000 travel voucher to passengers who were on the flight.

“Please accept our deepest apologies,” chairman Gary Kelly wrote in a letter dated April 18, a day after the accident.

“We value you as our customer and hope you will allow us another opportunity to restore your confidence in Southwest as the airline you can count on for your travel needs,” Kelly wrote in his letter.

“In this spirit, we are sending you a check in the amount of $5,000 to cover any of your immediate financial needs.”

“As a tangible gesture of our heartfelt sincerity, we are also sending you a $1,000 travel voucher,” he wrote.

Passenger Marty Martinez of Dallas said he has no immediate plan to cash the cheque. He wants to talk to a lawyer.

“I didn’t feel any sort of sincerity in the email whatsoever, and the $6,000 total that they gave to each passenger I don’t think comes even remotely close to the price that many of us will have to pay for a lifetime,” Martinez said Friday as he prepared to board a Southwest flight from New York.

Eric Zilbert of Davis, California, said he did not have a problem with the letter. He said he appreciated he would not have to file claim forms.

After checking with his attorney, he decided he would cash his cheque. “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t preclude anything by taking the voucher or the cheque,” he said.