Airlines in Japan and the U.S. have suspended dozens of Boeing 777s after the dramatic engine failure that United Airlines flight 328 suffered in Denver this weekend. According to the ongoing investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, two fan blades of the plane’s number 2 engine fractured.
The Federal Aviation Administration has issued an emergency airworthiness directive that requires “immediate or intensified inspections of Boeing 777 aircraft equipped with certain Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines”. Management noted that this would likely result in the aircraft being taken out of service.
“We reviewed all the security data available after yesterday’s incident,” said FAA administrator Steve Dickson in a demonstration. “Based on the initial information, we concluded that the inspection interval should be accelerated for the hollow fan blades, exclusive to this engine model, used exclusively on Boeing 777 aircraft.”
United airlines it says is voluntarily landing 24 Boeing 777 aircraft using the Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engines and expects “only a small number of customers to be disturbed”. The Japan Civil Aviation Office has ordered Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways to withdraw their aircraft with the same engines from service; JAL operates 14 and ANA, 19, according to Reuters.
No one was injured on United’s 328 flight, which was headed for Honolulu, but returned safely to Denver after finding the engine failure shortly after takeoff.