FAA orders immediate inspections of some Boeing 777 engines after United failure
Source: Reuters
AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE
FEBRUARY 23, 2021 8:41 PM UPDATED 13 MINUTES AGO
By David Shepardson, Jamie Freed 3 MIN READ
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Tuesday it was ordering immediate inspections of Boeing 777 planes with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines before further flights after an engine failed on a United flight on Saturday.
Operators must conduct a thermal acoustic image inspection of the large titanium fan blades located at the front of each engine, the FAA said.
The National Transportation Safety Board said on Monday that a cracked fan blade from the United Flight 328 engine that caught fire was consistent with metal fatigue.
Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Jamie Freed in Sydney; additional reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Joyce Lee in Seoul Editing by Himani Sarkar and Gerry Doyle
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-777/faa-orders-immediate-inspections-of-some-boeing-777-engines-after-united-failure-idUSKBN2AO054?il=0
Note for reference only:
This is a pretty intensive NDT testing /inspection procedure to be performed on the fan blade, because "all eighteen fan blades" have to be removed and numbered for this particular engine and there is a dimple locating the #1 fan blade.
And after the inspection there is small dimple on the fan blade turbine hub, wherever it is that is were the first numbered blade (#1) is reinstalled on the front turbine fan blade hub and all the fan blades are balanced , so if number #1 is at the 12:00 position, then its partner blade lets say #9 that weighs about the same is at the six o'clock position, you cannot put the blades back on in the hub in any location
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