EU orders inspections of Airbus A350 after Cathay Pacific flight fire

A Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 aircraft (Tim Chong/Reuters)

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will issue an emergency airworthiness directive to require spot inspections of aircraft engines Airbus A350after the fire on a Cathay Pacific flight this Monday.

The regulator’s action is the first official confirmation that a fire occurred at the airplane enginewhich caused that the flight turned around and returned to Hong Kong shortly after taking off for Zurich (Switzerland).

The community entity has also confirmed that not all A350 models can require inspectionsan AESA spokeswoman said in an email reported by ‘Bloomberg’. Rolls-Royce manufactures the engine Trent XWB-97 which powers the A350-1000 model.

The controls will be necessary to “identify and remove from service any potentially compromised high-pressure fuel hose,” AESA explained. The entity has stated that it has taken “precautionary measures” based on preliminary information it has received from the investigation led by the Hong Kong Air Accidents Investigation Authority, as well as Airbus and Rolls-Royce.

The airline based in Hong Kong cancelled 24 flights round-trip flights until Tuesday because some planes were to be out of service “for several days.” The aim is to resume all these planes on Saturday.

As for other airlines, Japan Airlines has completed the checks of its five A350-1000s and has not found any problems, while Singapore Airlinesthe world’s largest operator of the A350 with 64 aircraft, said it had begun the checks. For its part, Etihad has not found any problems.

Spain has purchased 16 C295 aircraft for 1.73 billion euros, an expenditure approved by the Council of Ministers between 2024 and 2031

*Information from Europa Press