Article from BTNews 8 APRIL 2019
SIA grounds two Dreamliners
In more drama for the aviation industry last week, excessive wear on turbine blades in the Rolls-Royce 1000 TEN engine was blamed by Singapore Airlines for forcing it to ground two of its Boeing B787 Dreamliners.
Rolls-Royce responded by saying it would accelerate a programme to install redesigned blades on some of the engines. The engine in the SIA incident, the latest version of the Trent 1000, has suffered a series of problems since entering service in 2011.
SIA said in a statement that "premature blade deterioration was found on some engines" of the B787-10 fleet during routine inspections. Rolls-Royce said it had warned airlines the high-pressure turbine blades would have “a limited life cycle”.
The airline statement added: "Pending engine replacements, two SIA 787-10 aircraft have been removed from service”, adding it would operate other aircraft on the affected routes to minimise disruption.
SIA became the first carrier in the world to fly the Dash-10 version of the B787. The aircraft has 337 seats – 36 lie-flat models in Business Class and 301 seats in Economy.
The company, along with all other carriers, has also grounded its Boeing B737 Max aircraft following two fatal crashes of Max 8 planes in Indonesia in October and in Ethiopia last month.
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