United said it is temporarily removing those aircraft from service, as meanwhile Boeing recommended grounding aircraft with that model engine until the Federal Aviation.
Boeing has recommended suspending operations of 777 airplanes like the United Airlines jet that suffered a failure on its right engine on Sunday and flames erupted under the wing as the plane began to lose altitude.
Pieces of the engine s casing rained down on suburban neighbourhoods.
The debris littered a Denver suburb. Credit: AP
The American National Transportation Safety Board said that two of the engine’s fan blades were fractured and the remainder of the fan blades “exhibited damage.”
The NTSB did caution that it was too early to draw conclusions about how the incident happened.
The Japan Civil Aviation Bureau also suspended operations fofall 777 aircraft powered by the Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines.
It said there were 69 of the engines in service and another 59 in storage.
The Federal Aviation Administration FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said in a statement on Sunday that based on an initial review of safety data, inspectors “concluded that the inspection interval should be stepped up for the hollow fan blades that are unique to this model of engine, used solely on Boeing 777 airplanes.”
Dozens of Boeing 777 aircraft grounded after Denver engine failure incident
Similar incidents are rare, and aircraft are usually able to safely continue flight for several hours 02/22/2021
Photo (c) FrankvandenBergh - Getty ImagesAfter a United Airlines-flown Boeing 777 failed and rained debris over Denver on Saturday, Boeing has recommended the grounding of all 69 in-service and 59 in-storage 777s powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines until the FAA establishes an appropriate inspection protocol.
United Flight 328, with 231 passengers aboard, was forced to make an emergency landing at Denver airport. No one was reported injured either on the plane or on the ground. The plane started shaking violently, and we lost altitude and we started going down, David Delucia said, adding that he and his wife put their wallets in their pockets in case we did go down, we could be ID d .