HONG KONG (AFP) – Cathay Pacific raced on Wednesday to replace a faulty engine part that has forced it to ground its A350 planes and other airlines around the world to do their own safety checks.
Cathay, one of the largest operators worldwide of the A350 jetliner, grounded its 48-plane fleet of the aircraft on Monday after a Zurich-bounded flight was forced to return to Hong Kong over an “engine component failure”.
The airline has so far cancelled nearly 70 flights, with mainly regional routes including connections to Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo, and Bangkok hit.
The component was “the first of its type to suffer such failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide”, Cathay said.
So far, an inspection by Cathay has found 15 planes with “affected engine components that require replacement”. Three had been repaired on Tuesday.
Cathay’s move prompted other airlines in the region to carry out similar checks on their fleets of Airbus A350-900 and Airbus A350-1000, both powered exclusively by Rolls-Royce engines.
Japan Airlines confirmed that three of their A350 jets turned up no issues, while two more were undergoing inspections Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Thai Airways said Wednesday no problems were found after they inspected their 23-plane fleet of A350s following the Cathay incident, and the airline was using their planes as normal.
Singapore Airlines said Tuesday they were also running checks.
“As a precautionary measure, SIA is inspecting the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-84 engines that power our Airbus A350-900 fleet,” a spokesperson said, adding that there was “no impact” on SIA flights operated with their A350-900 fleet.
Cathay has not specificed which engine part had caused the failure. Airbus and Rolls-Royce have also declined to provide details at this stage, saying an ongoing investigation preventing them from commenting further.
But Terence Fan, an aviation expert at Singapore Management University, said the Airbus 350 planes have had an “airworthiness directive” issued on it by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency earlier this year.
“A350 is often deployed in long-haul flights, many of which traverse oceans or sparsely populated areas with few airports for the affected aircraft to immediately divert to if both engines lose power as a result of reduced fuel intake,” he said.
“Clearly, the impairment was not to this extent at this point, but certainly sufficient to abort that flight to Zurich.”
Last November, Emirates chief executive Tim Clark expressed concerns about the durability and longevity of A350 engines.
Rolls-Royce has defended its Trent XWB-97 engines and said it was taking steps to improve their durability.
