Dozens of Boeing 777s grounded
Print Edition
BOEING confirmed yesterday 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.
It is a fresh blow for the beleaguered US aviation giant that was forced to ground another fleet of planes after a series of crashes.
Boeing said yesterday that 69 of it 777 planes in service with Pratt & Whitney engines will stop flying after the fire on Saturday that forced the United Airlines plane to make an emergency landing. The rest 59 were stored.
“I have just had confirmation that all the 777s equipped with this engine have been grounded,” a spokeswoman for the planemaker told AFP in a text message.
Flight UA328 had been headed from Denver to Honolulu when it experienced engine failure shortly after departure. A video shot from inside the plane showed the right engine ablaze and wobbling on the wing of the Boeing 777-200. Residents in the Denver suburb of Broomfield found large pieces of the plane scattered around their community.
The US Federal Aviation Administration had ordered extra inspections of some passenger jets after the incident. Steve Dickson, the head of the regulator, said he had consulted with experts, signaling the planes would likely be removed from the air.
“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.
The 777-200s and 777-300s affected are older and less fuel efficient than newer models and are currently being flown by just five airlines — United, Japan Airlines, ANA, Asiana Airlines and Korean Air Lines. Most of them are phasing them out of their fleets.
Civil Aviation Administration of China said China has no Boeing 777-200 passenger aircraft, nor transport aircraft with the PW4077 engine in question.
Japan’s transport ministry ordered JAL and ANA Holdings to suspend their use, while an official at South Korea’s transport ministry said it was waiting for formal action by the FAA.
Meanwhile, an incident involving a Boeing 747-400 cargo plane that dropped engine parts after a mid-air explosion and fire over the southern Netherlands on Saturday is under investigation, the Dutch Safety Board said.
The Longtail Aviation cargo plane, Flight 5504, scattered small metal parts over the Dutch town of Meerssen, causing damage and injuring a woman shortly after takeoff.
The plane, which was headed from Maastricht to New York, was powered by Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines, a smaller version of the one on the United Airlines flight.
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