Following a catastrophic engine failure in Denver recently, the United Airlines has been commanded to inspect all of its Boeing 777s by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) considering the damage it could have created. Allegedly, the company has temporarily halted the service of those aircraft for an undisclosed period.
The announcement comes post United Airlines’ Flight 328 was required to make a swift landing at Denver International Airport just after its right engine gusted apart moments after takeoff. In fact, pieces of the casing of the engine, a Pratt and Whitney PW4000, crashed down on suburban neighborhoods. One of the relieving news that comes from this incidence is that of 231 passengers and 10 crew members on board, no one in the plane or on the ground was reported hurt.
According to a statement released by the National Transportation Safety Board, two of the engine’s fan blades were ruptured and the remainder of these blades exhibited damage. However, it was also mentioned that it was too early to comment and draw conclusions about how the incident took place.
Meanwhile, the FAA Administrator- Steve Dickson, in a report stated that based on an initial review of the safety data, inspectors have raised conclusions that the inspection period needs to be increased for the fan blades that are quite unique to the given model of engine, which is exclusively being used on Boeing 777 airplanes.
Although the complete whereabout of the incident are not clearly mentioned in any report, a video posted on social media displayed the engine to be fully covered in flames as the plane took flight in the air. Freeze frames from various videos taken by a passenger sitting in front of the engine appeared to show a broken fan blade in the engine.
United Airlines has released a statement stating that the airline company would work closely with the NTSB and FAA to determine any additional steps required to make sure that these aircraft meet its rigorous safety standards and return back to service.