FAA issued alert over engine type
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Your support makes all the difference.Officials at the US Federal Aviation Administration issued a safety notice about the type of engine fitted on the Airbus A-300 just a month ago in which it cited concerns about a number of in-flight failures and ordered more frequent inspections. However, the order has not yet come into effect.
The FAA said the order – an updated version of a previous airworthiness directive – was issued after a number of reports that the engine was suffering "uncontained failures". This meant that pieces or parts were breaking off and coming through the cowling.
The two engines fitted to the American Airlines Airbus were General Electric CF6-80C2s. The engine has been under close scrutiny since the spring of 2000, when failures were first reported. An FAA spokesman, Les Dorr, yesterday said: "Uncontained engine failures are not a common occurrence, they tend to get the attention of both the manufacturer and the FAA."
Mr Dorr said that the directive called for more thorough mandatory inspections of crucial parts of the engine.
The US National Transportation Safety Board – the body which investigates the cause of all air accidents in the US – had also warned that failure of these engines during flight could send hot metal fragments tearing through important control systems or fuel lines, causing a plane to crash.
The American Airlines airliner had gone through routine maintenance tests overnight on Sunday, and investigators were checking who had access to it during those hours. The maintenance records will be scrutinised by investigators.
According to US law, the FAA must give a 60-day period for public and industry feedback before ordering more extensive and frequent inspections. That 60-day period set by the FAA was to end on 4 December.
The GE engine is not just used on the Airbus but is fitted to more than 1,000 aircraft around the world, including the Boeing 747 and 767 as well as the US President's official jet, Air Force One.
General Electric says it believes the engine is "phenomenally reliable", though experts say it has been at the centre of a number of dramatic failures over the past two years.
Kieran Daly of the aviation consultancy Air Transport Intelligence, said that on all of those previous occasions, the planes had landed safely.
On 18 May this year, a CF6 on a Monarch Airlines A-300-600 heading from Gatwick airport to Gambia failed at cruising height over Portugal.
No one from General Electric was yesterday available for comment.
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