News
Pratt & Whitney acts on FAA Airworthiness Directive to test PW4000 engine family
February 24th 2021
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today issued an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) that requires airlines flying 777s with certain Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines – PW4074, PW4074D, PW4077, PW4077D, PW4084D, PW4090, and PW4090-3 models – to have those engines inspected before flying. Read More » The emergency AD was in response to a UA 777-200 that suffered a fan blade failure shortly after take-off from Denver on Saturday. The FAA AD said operators would have to undertake a thermal acoustic image (TAI) inspection of the first stage low-pressure compressor (LPC) blades for cracks and replace any blades that failed the inspection.
Pratt & Whitney said it would conduct the inspections of the fan blades. "The process requires the shipment of fan blades to Pratt & Whitney where Thermal Acoustic Imaging (TAI) inspection will be used to confirm airworthiness," the company said. "The inspection is performed by Pratt & Whitney’s FAA-authorized repair station." The engine maker said it was "coordinating all actions with Boeing, airline operators and regulators”
