The US plane manufacturer Boeing has recommended grounding all 777 aircraft with the same type of engine that suffered failure over Denver on Saturday
Boeing has said that 128 airline jets should be suspended until inspections are carried out. United Airlines and Japan’s two key operators have already stopped using 56 planes with the same kind of engine.
Flight 328, which was carrying 231 passengers, was forced to make an emergency landing at Denver airport. No-body on the flight was injured.
“While [an] investigation is ongoing, we recommended suspending operations of the 69 in-service and 59 in-storage 777 aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines,” the company has said in an official statement.
Pratt & Whitney said that it had dispatched a team in order to work with airline investigators.
This comes after symptomatic cases of COVID-19 have been dropping by 94% after receiving two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which is according to the largest study of real-world data coming from Israel.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), United Airlines is the only US airline to be flying this model of 777, with the others being from Japan and South Korea.
Korean Air, which has six planes that are in operation, with 10 in storage, has said that it was awaiting the instructions from South Korean regulators regarding any new measures for its Boeing 777 jets.
United Flight 328, which was bound for Honolulu, suffered a failure to its right-hand engine. Debris from the airline jet was then found scattered over a nearby residential area after it returned to Denver airport.
The agency has reportedly ordered extra inspections of the Boeing 777 jets fitted with the engine from Pratt & Whitney 4000 following the incident. “We reviewed all available safety data following [Saturday’s] incident,” said FAA administrator Steve Dickson in a statement.
“Based on the initial information, we concluded that the inspection interval should be stepped up for the hollow fan blades that are unique to this model of engine, used solely on Boeing 777 airplanes.”
The FAA had met with representatives from the engine firm, as well as with Boeing on Sunday evening.
This comes after 15 million people in the UK have been vaccinated for the coronavirus, with everyone in the top four of the UK’s priority groups having been offered a vaccine for COVID-19, the nation’s health secretary has now confirmed.
The initial finding of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is that the majority of the damage occurred to the right engine, where two fan blades had been fractured and other blades had also been impacted. The main body of the airline plane only suffered minor damage.
The engine failure is yet another blow for Boeing, following its 737 Max aircraft being grounded for 18 months after two aviation accidents that left 346 people dead.
