European safety regulator EASA orders Airbus A350 engine checks
UAE carrier Etihad confirmed it is conducting safety checks on 5 of its A350s
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency will require one-time inspections of Airbus SE A350 engines after a midair fire on a Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. flight forced the airline to temporarily ground some aircraft.
The regulator will issue an emergency airworthiness directive to outline detailed requirements of the fuel-line checks later on Thursday, an EASA spokeswoman said in an email. Airbus and Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, which makes the Trent XWB engines that power the A350 model, said they were cooperating.
The EASA action marks the first official confirmation that an engine fire broke out in the incident at the start of this week, causing Flight CX383 to turn around and return to Hong Kong shortly after takeoff for Zurich. The fire was quickly detected and extinguished, the regulator said.
The checks will be required “to identify and remove from service any potentially compromised high pressure fuel hoses,” EASA said, calling the measure “precautionary.” Not all A350s may require inspections, it said.
Rolls-Royce shares fell 0.6 per cent in London on Thursday, bringing its losses for the week to 3.7 per cent. Airbus slipped 1.4 per cent.
Rolls-Royce is working with customers and suppliers to mitigate any disruption caused by the inspections, the company said in a statement. Airbus said it was working with EASA and Rolls.
Cathay Pacific, which had to cancel flights to inspect its fleet, has said that 15 of its 48 A350s had defective fuel hoses requiring replacement. It was targeting getting all of those widebody jets back in service by Saturday.
UAE's national carrier Etihad Airways confirmed that it is running checks on its fleet of five Airbus A350-1000s on Thursday after the Cathay mishap on Monday. The Abu Dhabi-based carrier confirmed it has not come across any issues so far. Etihad Airways is the sole UAE airline which has this aircraft type in service.
In the region, Qatar Airways is among the top operators of the A350 in the Middle East with 24 of the wide-body aircraft in its fleet. A statement from the airline is awaited.
Japan Airlines finished checks on all five of its A350-1000s and found no issues. It also started undertaking checks on its 15 of the smaller -900 model, with 10 completed and cleared.
Singapore Airlines Ltd., the largest operator globally of the A350 with 64 jets, said it started checks, and Etihad said Thursday it was undertaking inspections and had found no issues.
EASA said it acted based on preliminary information from the investigation that’s being led by the Air Accident Investigation Authority of Hong Kong, as well as from Airbus and Rolls-Royce.