FAA orders United Airlines to inspect Boeing 777s after emergency
What's the story
Federal aviation regulators have ordered United Airlines to step up inspections of all Boeing 777s equipped with the type of engine that suffered a catastrophic failure over Denver on Saturday.
The announcements on Sunday come a day after United Airlines Flight 328 had to make an emergency landing at Denver International Airport after its right engine blew apart just after takeoff.
Plane
Plane landed safely, no injuries reported
United says it is temporarily removing those aircraft from service.
Pieces of the casing of the engine, a Pratt & Whitney PW4000, rained down on suburban neighborhoods.
"The plane with 231 passengers and 10 crew on board landed safely, and nobody aboard or on the ground was reported hurt," authorities said.
Quote
Inspection interval for hollow fan blades to be stepped up
"Based on an initial review of safety data, inspectors concluded that 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," Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, Steve Dickson stated.
Damage
Video showed the engine engulfed in flames
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a separate statement that two of the engine's fan blades were fractured and the remainder of the fan blades exhibited damage.
The NTSB did caution that it was too early to draw conclusions about how the incident happened.
Video posted on Twitter showed the engine fully engulfed in flames as the plane flew through the air.
United only US airline with PW4000 in its fleet
Freeze frames from different videos taken by a passenger sitting slightly in front of the engine and posted on Twitter appeared to show a broken fan blade in the engine.
"United is the only US airline with the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 in its fleet," the FAA said.
United says it currently has 24 of the 777s in service.
Transport
NTSB will analyze cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder
The NTSB said, "The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were transported to its lab in Washington for the data to be downloaded and analyzed."
NTSB investigations can take up to a year or longer, although in major cases the agency generally releases some investigative material midway through the process.
Information
Japanese, Korean airlines to stop operating planes with P&W engine
Airlines in Japan and South Korea also operate planes with the Pratt & Whitney engine. Japan Airways and All Nippon Airways have decided to stop operating a combined 32 planes with that engine, according to Nikkei.
Problem
Japan revealed a past issue faced by an airline
Nikkei reported that Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism also ordered the planes out of service, and the ministry said an engine in the same PW4000 family suffered unspecified trouble on a JAL 777 flying to Haneda from Naha on December 4.
It also ordered stricter inspections in response.