The air transport gendarme in the United States (FAA), criticized for his inaction in the crisis of two fatal 737 MAX accidents, is again in the hot seat after several incidents of the Boeing 777 which have similarities.
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The regulator said Monday at the end of the day that he had considered imposing more stringent inspections on the Pratt & Withney engines equipping the 777 after an incident on a Japan Airlines flight at the end of 2020. This revelation was made shortly. only before the announcement of the first conclusions on the spectacular failure of a Boeing 777 operated by United Airlines on Saturday in Colorado, in the west of the United States.
The US transportation safety bureau, the NTSB, has warned that it will take a close look at the actions taken by the FAA after the hitch in 2020 and another in 2018.
“Part of our investigation will certainly be to determine who knew what and when, ”
Robert Sumwalt, NTSB chairman, said at a press conference Monday night.
"We will look at what could have been done, what should have been done, if something had to be done"
, he added.
The first findings of the NTSB suggest a possible
"metal fatigue"
of the blades of the engine manufactured by Pratt & Withney.
Could be avoided?
The FAA had previously requested that these blades be regularly inspected after a problem on February 13, 2018 on a United Airlines flight between San Francisco and Honolulu.
Following another incident on a Japan Airlines flight in December 2020, she
"was evaluating the need to adjust the inspections"
when a new damage struck, shortly after takeoff, the United Airlines plane. Saturday.
The NTSB confirmed that two of the fan blades were damaged.
The right engine caught fire and lost its fairing as multiple debris fell in a residential area on the outskirts of Denver.
Behind the scenes, the question is whether Saturday's incident could have been avoided had the FAA ordered a thorough inspection of the Pratt & Whitney engines.
We have to wait for the final conclusions of the investigation, warn several aeronautical experts interviewed by AFP.
But
"it is possible that there was a common problem"
to the three incidents, notes Scott Hamilton of the specialized site Leeham News.
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This is not the first time that the actions or lack of actions of the FAA have come under scrutiny in a case involving Boeing.
The agency had been strongly criticized for not having acted more forcefully after the crash in October 2018 of the 737 MAX of the Indonesian company Lion Air which left 189 dead.
Four months later, a similar plane from Ethiopian Airlines crashed for similar reasons, killing 157 people.
A US Congressional Transport Committee concluded in September, after an 18-month investigation, that the FAA's lack of oversight was to blame.
Parliamentarians also criticized the regulator for being too close to Boeing.
Improve or rethink inspections
In the case of the damaged blades of the Boeing 777,
"either there is a problem with the molding of the manufacture of the titanium blades"
, or it is a
"maintenance problem" with parts that are did not "change early enough,"
said Pascal Roche, professor of propulsion at the National School of Civil Aviation in Toulouse (ENAC).
In any case, the reporting of two previous incidents in three years
"means that the regulator, the company and the engine manufacturer were closely monitoring the engine"
, notes John Cox of the firm specializing in aeronautical safety Safety Operating.
If the problem is with the blades, we will have to determine whether the technicians missed a possible fault or if the fault was simply not detectable, he believes.
The answer to this question will determine whether to improve the quality of inspections or rethink the way they are carried out, possibly requiring that the blades be replaced more often, he told AFP.
The action of the FAA, which had already increased the frequency of inspections, is however
"defensible"
, believes John Cox.
"Considering what we know today, it would perhaps have been desirable to improve the inspections but (the regulator) did not have all this data at his disposal"
.
The FAA is due to issue a new airworthiness directive once its safety experts finish reviewing the data available on the United Airlines flight.
