According to Boeing, 128 Boeing 777 aircraft around the world with Pratt & Whitney PW4000-112 engines will remain on the ground until the weekend incident is cleared up.
On Saturday, a Boeing 777-200 of the US airline United Airlines had to make an emergency landing at Denver Airport in the state of Colorado after the right engine caught fire and failed (article image). Before that, debris fell into residential areas. Nobody was hurt.
This part of the engine fell into a front yard near Denver on Saturday
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Older models affected
The US air traffic control authority (FAA) immediately announced a review of the airworthiness of all Boeing 777s with PW4000 engines. Only recently, the younger Boeing 737 Max received flight certification after two machines of this type crashed in 2018 and 2019 and a worldwide flight ban was imposed.
A first check of the engine failure shows “that the inspection intervals for the hollow fan blades should be increased, which are unique to this engine model and are only installed on the 777,” explained FAA boss Steve Dickson. Two fan blades were broken and panels had come loose. The affected jets 777-200 and 777-300 are older models that have already been withdrawn from many airlines.
According to Boeing, of the 128 aircraft that are to remain on the ground for the time being, 69 are currently in service and a further 59 are in storage.
Incident in Japan
According to the FAA, United Airline is the only US airline to use this type of aircraft; other operators are in Japan and South Korea. United announced that they had immediately shut down 56 machines.
In Japan, the Ministry of Transport ordered the companies Japan Airlines (JAL) and the Lufthansa partner airline ANA to take their 13 and 19 aircraft of this type out of service. At the beginning of December, according to the ministry, a 777 from JAL had to turn back due to problems with the left engine. In this case, too, the fan blades were broken.
In Korea, the Korean Air airline said that its six planes of this type currently in service are currently on the ground and that ten more have already been temporarily shut down. Asiana, the second largest airline in the country, announced that it will not fly its currently seven operational machines of this type for the time being.
Of the more than 1,600 Boeing 777s built to date, less than ten percent are equipped with the affected engine type. The Lufthansa Group also has 777 planes. How Aerotelegraph reported, but none of them are equipped with the affected Pratt & Whitney engines.
bea / hb (reuters, ap, afp)
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