Engine on fire, part falling from the sky, worried exchanges with the control tower… The sounds and images that circulated on social networks to report the engine failure of a Boeing 777-220, Saturday in the United States, let guess that the outcome of the trip, miraculously happy, would not be without result.
The US Federal Aviation Regulatory Authority (FAA) had already ordered on Sunday, the day after the incident over Colorado, additional inspections on certain Boeing 777-type commercial aircraft. In the process, Boeing has requested the immobilization on the ground of 128 of its commercial planes of type 777 planes around the world.
“After consulting with my team of aviation safety experts about yesterday's
(Saturday)
engine failure
aboard a Boeing 777 aircraft in Denver, I asked them to issue an Emergency Airworthiness Directive that would require immediate or in-depth inspections of Boeing 777 aircraft equipped with certain Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines, FAA official Steve Dickson wrote in a statement on Twitter.
This will probably mean that some planes will be withdrawn from service, ”he added.
The United Airlines Boeing 777 had taken off Saturday from Denver, Colorado, for Honolulu, the Hawaiian capital, with 231 passengers and 10 crew on board, when it had to turn around urgently after the fire of its right reactor.
The aircraft was able to land safely at Denver airport, without causing any injuries.
VIDEO.
United States: a burning plane sows debris on neighborhoods in Denver
United Airlines, the company victim of the incident in Colorado which is now investigating the United States National Transportation and Safety Office, and the two main Japanese companies, JAL and ANA, have thus grounded their aircraft equipped with 'an engine similar to the one that caused the problem.
“While the investigation is ongoing, we have recommended suspending operations of the 69 777 aircraft in service and 59 stock aircraft equipped with Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines,” Boeing said in a statement.
United said it had voluntarily withdrawn 24 Boeing 777s from service and expected "only a small number of customers to be inconvenienced".
Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) announced that they had grounded 13 and 19 aircraft with PW4000 engines, respectively, but avoided flight cancellations by using other aircraft.
Japan's Transport Ministry said it had ordered more stringent engine inspections after a JAL 777 aircraft flying from Tokyo Haneda Airport in Naha, on the island of Okinawa, had problems with “ an engine from the same family ”in December.
Precedents with the 737 MAX
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 in a residential area in Broomfield, a suburb of Denver.
No one was injured on the ground, according to local authorities.
Steve Dickson indicated that a preliminary review of the safety data had revealed the need for additional fan blade checks of the type of reactor concerned.
"Based on the initial information, we concluded that the interval between inspections should be shortened for the hollow fan blades, which exist only on this type of engine, used only on Boeing 777s", explains the head of the FAA.
On Sunday evening, an FAA meeting was held with representatives from Boeing.
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> Air transport: in the United States, you can refuse to fly on a Boeing 737 MAX
In recent years, Boeing has experienced a serious problem with another of its models, the 737 MAX.
The plane was banned from flying in March 2019 after two accidents that killed 346, that of Lion Air in Indonesia in October 2018 (189 deaths) and that of Ethiopian Airlines in March 2019 in Ethiopia (157 deaths).
Boeing had to modify the flight control software and put in place new pilot training protocols before the aircraft was allowed to fly again, after more than 20 months of ban.
The resumption of commercial flights of the Boeing 737 MAX took place from December 2020, first in Brazil, then in the United States and Canada.
The first commercial flight in Europe, under the colors of the Belgian company TUI fly, took place on Wednesday February 17 between Brussels and Alicante and then Malaga, in Spain.
