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U.S. NEWS Thursday 19 april 2018

Regulators to require inspections after jet engine explosion

Continued from Front head, neck and torso.
Family members identified
The FAA proposed making her as 43-year-old Jennifer
the recommendation man- Riordan, a banking execu-
datory in August but never tive and mother of two from
issued a final decision. Albuquerque, New Mexi-
In a brief statement late co. The pilots began a har-
Wednesday, an FAA of- rowing descent and made
ficial said the agency will an emergency landing in
issue an order in the next Philadelphia. Investigators
two weeks to require ul- said the plane landed at
trasonic inspection of fan an unusually high speed
blades on some CFM56-7B because the pilots feared
engines after they reach losing control if they flew
a certain number of take- slower. The leading edge
offs and landings. Blades of the left wing was dam-
that fail will have to be re- aged by shrapnel from the
placed, the agency said. engine explosion.
It is not clear how many It is unclear whether the
planes will be affected. FAA’s original directive
Last year, the FAA esti- would have forced South-
mated that an order would west to quickly inspect
cover 220 engines on U.S. the engine that blew up. A Southwest Airlines plane sits on the runway at the Philadelphia International Airport after it made
an emergency landing in Philadelphia, on Tuesday, April 17, 2018.
airlines. That number could CEO Gary Kelly said it had Associated Press
be higher now because logged only 10,000 cycles
more engines have hit the since being overhauled. said, however, that the kind So-called D checks are to provide the plane’s
number of flights triggering Before Wednesday’s an- of wear seen where the done roughly every six maintenance records to
an inspection. nouncement, critics ac- missing fan blade broke off years for older planes, less The Associated Press, but
Southwest announced its cused the FAA of inaction would not have been vis- frequently for newer ones. a spokeswoman said that
own program for similar in- in the face of a threat to ible just by looking at the It can take weeks and in- the failed engine had ex-
spections of its 700-plane safety. engine. volves taking apart much perienced no unscheduled
fleet over the next month. Robert Clifford, a lawyer There are several types of the plane for inspection maintenance in the last
United Airlines executives who is suing American Air- of inspections that planes and possible repair or re- 60 days. NTSB investiga-
said Wednesday that they lines over another engine must go through, ranging placement of parts, then tors plan to visit Southwest
had begun to inspect explosion that caused a fire from an “A check,” which is putting it back together. headquarters in Dallas next
some of their planes. that destroyed the plane, done about every eight to Engines are typically re- week to inspect mainte-
American Airlines has said the FAA should have 10 weeks, to more-rigorous moved for work during a D nance records, Sumwalt
about 300 planes with that required the inspections — B, C and D checks. check. Southwest declined said.q
type of engine, and Delta even if it meant grounding
Air Lines has about 185. It Boeing 737s.
won’t be clear until the FAA “There is something going
issues its rule how many will on with these engines,”
need inspections. he said, “and the statisti-
Tuesday’s accident broke cal likelihood of additional
a string of eight straight failures exists.” William Wal-
years without a fatal acci- dock, a safety expert at
dent involving a U.S. pas- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
senger airliner. University, predicted the
“Engine failures like this FAA’s decision. He said the
should not occur,” said scope of FAA action will
NTSB Chairman Robert depend on whether inves-
Sumwalt. tigators find fatigue in other
Sumwalt expressed con- fan blades on the broken
cern about such a destruc- engine. “The first thing they
tive engine failure but said probably are going to do
he would not yet draw is pull every single one of
broad conclusions about those other blades off and
the safety of CFM56 en- X-ray them to see if they’ve
gines or the entire fleet of got a similar type of failure
Boeing 737s, the most pop- waiting to happen,” he
ular airliner ever built. said. The Southwest CEO
Federal investigators were protested that it is too soon
still trying to determine how to say whether Tuesday’s
a window came out of the incident is related to any
plane. The woman sitting other engine failures.
next to the window was Kelly said the plane was
wearing a seat belt, but inspected on Sunday and
passengers said she was nothing appeared out of
partially blown out of the order. A spokeswoman said
plane. Philadelphia’s medi- it was a visual inspection
cal examiner said she died and oil service of the en-
from blunt impact to her gines. The NTSB’s Sumwalt