US aviation body orders urgent probes of some Boeing 777 engines

Inspections are to focus on Pratt & Whitney engines of the type that failed during a United Airlines flight on Saturday.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says it is ordering immediate inspections of Boeing 777 planes fitted with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines after one of the jets failed on a United Airlines flight on Saturday. Operators must conduct a thermal-acoustic image inspection of the large titanium fan blades – essentially a way of peering under the surface of the metal – located at the front of each engine, the FAA said on Tuesday. “Based on the initial results as we receive them, as well as other data gained from the ongoing investigation, the FAA may revise this directive to set a new interval for this inspection or subsequent ones,” the FAA said.