Boeing has ordered all 777 planes equipped with the engine model that caught fire in Denver be grounded

Some 128 Boeing 777s using the same Pratt & Whitney engine that failed on a flight out of Denver have now been grounded, A spokeswoman for the US aviation giant confirmed this on Monday after one of the United Airlines planes suffered an engine failure in Colorado the day before.

“I have just received confirmation that all 777s equipped with this engine have been grounded.”he said in a text message to AFP.

In addition to United airlines, the PW4000 engine type was also used by the ANA groups Yes JAL of Japan, in addition to Asiana Airlines from South Korea.

In a Sunday statement, the company recommended that all affected aircraft be grounded while US regulators have investigated a United Airlines flight that was forced to return to Denver airport after one of its engines caught fire and broke down.

Video recorded from inside the plane, which had 231 passengers and 10 crew on board, showed the right engine on fire and spinning in the wing of the Boeing 777-200.

Its front fairing, which landed in the front yard of a house, was completely gone when the plane, which was on its way to Honolulu, Hawaii, returned to the Denver airport.

There were no injuries on the plane or on the ground, authorities said.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered additional inspections on some Boeing 777 airliners on Sunday, while the National Bureau of Transportation and Security The United States is also investigating the incident.

Planes taken out of service

United Airlines said it had voluntarily withdrawn twenty-four Boeing 777 and that he expected the measure “to cause inconvenience only to a small number of customers”.

Japan Airlines (JAL) y All Nippon Airways (ANA) announced that it had 13 and 19 aircraft equipped with PW4000 engines on the ground respectively, but did not cancel any flights because they replaced these aircraft with others.

Japan’s transport ministry said it ordered more stringent inspections after a JAL 777 plane flying from Tokyo to Naha on Okinawa Island had problems with “a related engine” in December.

For its part, Korean Air grounded its six Boeing 777s equipped with PW4000 engines currently in service.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Steve Dickson, administrator of the FAA, explained that after consulting with his team of aviation safety experts, he ordered them to issue “an emergency airworthiness directive that will require inspections. immediate or intensified aircraft. Boeing 777 fitted with certain Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines ”.

Hit hard after 737 MAX problems

The American aircraft manufacturer has had serious problems in recent years with another of its models, the 737 MAX. The plane had to cease to be used in March 2019 after two accidents which left 346 dead, that of Lion air in Indonesia in October 2018 (189 deaths) and that of Ethiopian Airlines, in March 2019, in Ethiopia (157 dead).

After more than 20 months, and after the modification of the flight command program and the implementation of new protocols in the training of pilots, the resumption of flights of the aircraft has been authorized, as of December 2020.

KEEP READING: