Boeing 777s grounded

Following what Boeing described as ‘An Event’ on Saturday 20 February  the aircraft manufacturer has advised the five American and Asian airlines operating the 777 with the same series of Pratt & Whitney engines to ground them. (see United Airlines ‘Event’ BTN 22 February.)

They are some of the oldest 777s in service, the aircraft in question built in 1995.  Some 112 aircraft are initially involved with many already laid up due to the pandemic.  Steve Dickson, the FAA director, said that it would produce an emergency airworthiness directive on inspections of the aircraft with the engines.  This would “likely mean that some airplanes will be removed from service,” he said.

There are currently around 1,400 of the wide-bodied aircraft with carriers around the world, engine suppliers also including General Electric and Rolls-Royce.  

This is not the first time that Pratt-engined 777 aircraft have been involved in incidents.  Also on Saturday, a cargo version dropped debris in Masstrict (Netherlands) causing some minor injuries on the ground, in February 2018 a United Airlines lost an engine and dropped a casing, and in December two fan blades broke a Japan Airlines’ 777 flight from Naha to Tokyo.  

www.boeing.com

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