DREAMLINER NIGHTMARE New engines must be fixed

Posted on 04/25/2016

Airlines flying Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner jets with the latest General Electric Co. engines were ordered to repair them, or swap out at least one with an older model, in an urgent safety directive issued by the Federal Aviation Administration Authority (FAA) after an in-flight failure.

The warning comes after an engine on a Japan Airlines 787 Dreamliner shut down mid-flight and could not be restarted. A GEnx-1B PIP2, part of a family of engines which has been beset by issues related to icing, suffered “substantial damage” in the Jan. 29 incident, when ice on the fan blades broke loose, the FAA said in an order published Friday. 

“The potential for common cause failure of both engines in flight is an urgent safety issue,” the FAA said in its order and it has given airlines until the first week of October to complete repair work. Airlines operating 787s with GE engines have till then to make sure that they have made repairs or have installed at least one older version of the GEnx engine on each plane so that they won’t risk losing power in both, the FAA said. 

The older GEnx model isn’t as susceptible to damage from icing. Until the planes are fixed, pilots must be instructed how to prevent engine icing while flying above 12,500 feet. When pilots suspect ice may be forming, they have to momentarily add power to each engine once every five minutes, the FAA said. 

In the Japan Airlines incident the pilot was able to land the plane safely using the remaining engine. Earlier issues with icing The GEnx, a high-efficiency engine developed for wide-body aircraft, has faced earlier issues with icing. In 2013, the FAA ordered airlines to avoid flying 787 and 747-8 planes equipped with the GE engines near thunderstorms in high-altitude cruise flight. Even in those sub-freezing temperatures, moisture from the storms could enter the engines and form dangerous ice, the FAA said. 

The latest incident is unrelated to the 2013 situation. It occurred at 20,000 feet - an altitude, which was lower than previous icing issues encountered by the engine model. There are 176 aircraft operated by 29 airlines worldwide that could be affected by the faulty engine. The FAA order applies only to the 43 planes flown by US carriers, however other countries typically follow the FAA’s lead on safety issues. 

“We see it as an operational issue and we want to correct it,” Rick Kennedy, a GE spokesman, said in an interview. He said GE plans to address the issue by September. Engines in production also are being altered. 

Engines can be fixed by shaving off a small amount of metal from the case surrounding the fan, giving the blades more clearance to prevent the rubbing that caused the damage in January, Kennedy said. The repair can be completed without removing the engine from the plane, he said. 

A Boeing spokesman said work mandated by the FAA was already well under way with more than 40 engines complete. Bloomberg reported that GE’s recommended actions were given to airlines on April 1.