East Hartford jet-engine maker Pratt & Whitney saw its flagship product in the headlines this week after a midair explosion on a commercial flight last weekend.
The explosion shortly after the takeoff United Airlines Flight 328 from Denver on Saturday happened in an engine that showed signs of metal fatigue, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said at a briefing on Monday. The plane landed safely but shed debris in its wake.
The engine involved, a PW4000 model, was mounted on a 26-year-old Boeing 777. PW4000 engines are used on less than 10% of the global fleet of 777 widebody jets.
FAA chief Steve Dickson announced an Emergency Airworthiness Directive late Monday requiring “immediate or stepped-up inspections of Boeing 777 airplanes equipped with certain Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines.” The hollow fan blades unique to PW4000 engines used by Boeing were singled out in the directive.
“While the NTSB investigation is ongoing, we recommended suspending operations of the 69 in-service and 59 in-storage 777s powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines until the FAA identifies the appropriate inspection protocol,” Boeing said in a statement on Sunday.
Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau suspended operations on Sunday of the 31, 777 planes powered by PW4000 engines in that country.
Pratt & Whitney parent company Raytheon Technologies Corp. said last month it would increase planned layoffs by 1,500 company-wide as its commercial aerospace business continued to suffer amid COVID-19. The company previously announced it planned 15,000 layoffs at Pratt & Whitney.
