FAA Orders Inspections of Boeing 777s After United Airlines Engine Incident

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it had ordered immediate inspections of Boeing 777 planes with Pratt & Whitney engines after a United Airlines flight experienced an engine failure over the weekend.

According to Reuters.com, Boeing revealed that only 128 planes had the PW4000 engines, which accounts for less than 10 percent of the 1,600-plus 777s currently in service. The company said only a few carriers in the United States, South Korea and Japan were still operating them.

FAA officials said that all carriers using the impacted planes would be required to conduct a thermal acoustic image inspection of the large titanium fan blades on each engine.

“Based on the initial results as we receive them, as well as other data gained from the ongoing investigation, the FAA may revise this directive to set a new interval for this inspection or subsequent ones,” an FAA spokesperson told Reuters.

On Saturday, United Flight 328 was traveling from Denver International Airport to Honolulu when one of its engines caught fire and dropped dozens of pieces of debris. There were no reported injuries on the ground or onboard, but the airline announced it would ground all Boeing 777 planes powered by PW4000 engines in its fleet.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced Monday that a cracked fan blade from Saturday’s incident was consistent with metal fatigue. South Korea’s transport ministry has also ordered impacted 777s to be grounded and banned foreign carriers from flying the planes in its airspace.

As a result of the FAA orders, United issued a warning of potential disruptions to its cargo flight schedule in March as the carrier adjusts its fleet without the 24 grounded Boeing 777-200 planes.