CORRECTED-UPDATE 3-Boeing recommends airlines suspend use of some 777s after United incident
(Corrects number of Korean Air 777s in service and stored inparagraph 18)
By Jamie Freed and David Shepardson
Feb 22 (Reuters) - Boeing Co said it recommendedsuspending the use of 777 jets with the same type of engine thatshed debris over Denver at the weekend after U.S. regulatorsannounced extra inspections and Japan suspended their use whileconsidering further action.
The moves involving Pratt & Whitney 4000 engines came aftera United Airlines 777 landed safely at Denver InternationalAirport on Saturday local time after its right engine failed.
United said the next day it would voluntarily andtemporarily remove its 24 active planes, hours before Boeing'sannouncement.
Boeing said 69 of the planes were in service and 59 were instorage, at a time when airlines have grounded planes due to aplunge in demand associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The manufacturer recommended airlines suspend operationsuntil U.S. regulators identified the appropriate inspectionprotocol.
The 777-200s and 777-300s affected are older and less fuelefficient than newer models and most operators are phasing themout of their fleets.
Images posted by police in Broomfield, Colorado showedsignificant plane debris on the ground, including an enginecowling scattered outside a home and what appeared to be otherparts in a field.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said itsinitial examination of the plane indicated most of the damagewas confined to the right engine, with only minor damage to theairplane.
It said the inlet and casing separated from the engine andtwo fan blades were fractured, while the remainder of the fanblades exhibited damage.
Japan's transport ministry ordered Japan Airlines Co Ltd(JAL) and ANA Holdings Inc to suspend the useof 777s with P&W4000 engines while it considered whether to takeadditional measures.
The ministry said that on Dec. 4, 2020, a JAL flight fromNaha Airport to Tokyo International Airport returned to theairport due to a malfunction in the left engine about 100kilometres north of Naha Airport.
That plane was the same age as the 26-year-old UnitedAirlines plane involved in the latest incident.
United is the only U.S. operator of the planes, according tothe Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The other airlinesusing them are in Japan and South Korea, the U.S. agency said.
"We reviewed all available safety data," the FAA said in astatement. "Based on the initial information, we concluded thatthe inspection interval should be stepped up for the hollow fanblades that are unique to this model of engine, used solely onBoeing 777 airplanes."
Japan said ANA operated 19 of the type and JAL operated 13of them, though the airlines said their use had been reducedduring the pandemic. JAL said its fleet was due for retirementby March 2022.
Pratt & Whitney, owned by Raytheon Technologies Corp, was not available immediately for comment.
A spokeswoman for South Korea's transport ministry, speakingbefore Boeing recommended suspending operations, said it wasmonitoring the situation but had not yet taken any action.
Korean Air Lines Co Ltd said it had 16 of theplanes, 10 of them stored, and it would consult with themanufacturer and regulators and stop flying them to Japan fornow.
In February 2018, a 777 of the same age operated by Unitedand bound for Honolulu suffered an engine failure when a cowlingfell off about 30 minutes before the plane landed safely. TheNTSB determined that incident was the result of a full-lengthfan blade fracture.
Because of that 2018 incident, Pratt & Whitney reviewedinspection records for all previously inspected PW4000 fanblades, the NTSB said. The FAA in March 2019 issued a directiverequiring initial and recurring inspections of the fan blades onthe PW4000 engines.(Reporting by Jamie Freed in Sydney and David Shepardson inWashington; additional reporting by Eimi Yamamitsu and MakiShiraki in Tokyo, Joyce Lee in Seoul and Tim Hepher in Paris;Editing by Sam Holmes and Christopher Cushing)
