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Cathay Pacific inspects 48 A350s after engine part failure

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Engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce has not issued inspection

directive to airlines-source

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Other A350 operators are flying normally-FlightRadar24

data

By Lisa Barrington

Sept 3 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways ( CPCAF )

is inspecting all of its Airbus A350 jets

after the in-flight failure of an engine part on Monday, but

other airlines have not yet been issued instructions to examine

similar engines, carriers said.

Cathay Pacific cancelled 24 return flights through the end

of Wednesday to give it time to inspect its fleet of 48

Rolls-Royce powered A350s after a part failed on one of

its A350-1000 widebody planes minutes after take-off from Hong

Kong.

Data from flight tracking service FlightRadar24 showed other

major operators of the A350-1000 and the smaller, more popular

A350-900 appeared to be flying their aircraft normally on

Tuesday.

Tokyo-based Japan Airlines (JAL), which has five

A350-1000s that are all less than a year old, said it had asked

Rolls-Royce for more information and had not stopped A350

flights in the meantime.

"If the engine manufacturer takes any further action, we

will respond accordingly," a JAL spokesperson said.

Rolls-Royce had not yet issued a directive to airlines

regarding possible inspections, according to an industry source

who was not authorised to speak publicly about the matter.

The engine manufacturer said in a statement it was aware of

the incident and was committed to working closely with Cathay

Pacific, Airbus and authorities conducting an investigation.

Cathay Pacific has not specified which engine component

failed, but the carrier said it was the "first of its type to

suffer such failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide".

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters the incident

involved a problem with a fuel nozzle inside a XWB-97 engine,

the Rolls-Royce model used on the A350-1000.

Experts say such problems are rare but, barring a deeper

flaw, generally raise fewer alarms than the failure of one of

the major rotating parts such as a turbine blade. However, any

widespread further inspections could be disruptive to airlines.

Airbus said in a statement it was in contact with

Rolls-Royce and Cathay Pacific and offering "full technical

support".

'PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE'

Taiwan's China Airlines, which operates 15

A350-900s but no A350-1000s, said its fleet did not use the

affected engines, so its operations would not be impacted.

"The company will continue to pay attention to the

instructions of the original manufacturer and take the

initiative to arrange for testing operations to ensure the

safety of aircraft operations," it said in a statement.

Although the part failure occurred on one of its 18

A350-1000 jets, Cathay Pacific said it was also inspecting its

30 A350-900s as a "precautionary measure".

The airline said it had "identified a number of the same

engine components that need to be replaced" but did not say on

which model aircraft.

There are around 88 A350-1000 jets in operation worldwide,

according to Swiss aviation intelligence provider ch-aviation.

The top six operators are Qatar Airways with 24 planes,

British Airways with 18, Cathay Pacific with 18, Virgin

Atlantic with 12 and Etihad Airways and JAL with five each.

Qatar Airways, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Etihad

did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Cathay Pacific shares slipped as much as 0.9% on Tuesday.

The flight legs it has cancelled between Hong Kong and

Sydney, Osaka, Tokyo, Taipei, Bangkok and Singapore through the

end of Wednesday represent around 2.4% of the number it was

scheduled to run per week in September, according to Cirium

flight schedule data.

Rolls-Royce shares closed 6.5% lower on Monday.