The US Federal Civil Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Sunday it was issuing an emergency directive following the engine failure of a United Airlines Boeing 777 in Denver, calling for an enhanced inspection of similar planes.
Steve Dickson, the director of the FAA, said the directive relates to Boeing 777s equipped with particular Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines, adding that this « certainly means that some planes will have to be taken out of service ”.
In a statement, he added that early evidence of Saturday’s incident in Colorado indicated that the“Inspection interval should be reinforced for the blades hollow specific to this type of engine, used only on Boeing 777 planes ”.
24 suspended planes
United Airlines is the only American airline to have in its fleet of planes with PW4000 engines.
Shortly after the FAA’s announcement, United said it was suspending the use of its 24 Boeing 777s equipped with PW4000 engines and discussing with U.S. regulators possible additional measures needed to ensure return to service. of these devices safely.
On Saturday, an aircraft making a flight between Denver (Colorado) and Honolulu (Hawaii) with 231 passengers and 10 crew members, had been forced to make an emergency U-turn because of the fire of its right turbojet .
The aircraft had been able to land safely at the Denver airport from where it had just taken off and none of its occupants were injured.
A video taken by a passenger on flight UA328 shows the right engine of the plane in flames and shows that the damaged engine fairing is completely missing.
As the Boeing returned to the airport, a shower of debris, some large, fell on a residential area in Broomfield, a town on the outskirts of Denver. No one was hit on the ground.
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