WASHINGTON: The Federal aircraft administration (FAA) said Tuesday it was ordering an immediate inspection of Boeing 777-200 aircraft with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines before more flights arrived after an engine failed on a United flight on Saturday.
Operators must perform a thermal acoustic image inspection of the large titanium fan blades located in front of each engine, the FAA said.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday that a fan blade cracked from the United Flight 328 engine that caught fire was consistent with a metal weakness.
“Based on the initial results as we receive them, in addition to other data obtained from the ongoing study, the FAA may revise this guidance to establish a new interval for this study or the ones after that, ”said the FAA.
In March 2019, following the failure of the 2018 United engine given to fan blade obesity, the FAA ordered inspections of all 6,500 rings. A circle is one of subtraction and landing.
South Korea’s transport ministry said Tuesday it had told its airlines to inspect the fan blades every 1,000 rings following instructions from Pratt following the latest United incident.
An airline would typically collect 1,000 rings around every 10 months on 777, according to an industry source familiar with the matter.
The FAA said in 2019 that each study was expected to take 22 hours and cost $ 1,850. He did not release updated estimates Tuesday.
The PW4000 was the failed engine of a 26-year-old Boeing 777 that lost parts over the Denver suburb on Saturday. The engines are used on 128 aircraft, or less than 10% of the global fleet of more than 1,600 delivering 777 wide jets.
Boeing said it supported the latest FAA audit guidance and would work through the process with the customers.
They had previously suggested that airlines should stop using the planes while the FAA identified an appropriate inspection protocol, and Japan temporarily suspended flights after what happened on Saturday.
United, the only U.S. operator, had established its fleet for some time before the FAA was named.
United have warned of possible conflicts over their cargo flight schedule in March as it mocks its fleet following its decision to base a Boeing 777-200 24 aircraft, according to a notice sent to buyers of goods.