KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines said on Friday (Sep 6) it had found a “potential issue” with the engine of an Airbus A350-900 aircraft in its fleet but added that it had been resolved.
The issue comes after the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued an emergency directive to airlines ordering mandated inspections on A350-1000s which are powered by XWB-97 engines made by Rolls-Royce.
The checks were prompted by an “in-flight engine fire” on one of Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific’s Zurich-bound flights.
Malaysia Airlines’ fleet of A350-900 planes “recently underwent a precautionary inspection, during which a potential issue with high-pressure fuel hoses on one aircraft was identified”, the carrier said in a statement.
“This finding was swiftly resolved, and the aircraft has been fully cleared for service in accordance with stringent maintenance protocols,” it added.
On Friday, following the incident, EASA said extending its compulsory engine inspections to include the XWB-84 engines found on the Malaysia Airlines Airbus A350-900 is “not warranted at this stage”.
The Cathay incident prompted other airlines in the region to carry out similar checks on their A350-900 and A350-1000 models, which are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-84 and XWB-97 engines, respectively.
The EASA said on Thursday that Cathay’s A350-1000 aircraft suffered an engine failure due to a high-pressure fuel hose failing.
It added that there was an “in-flight engine fire shortly after take-off”, which was “promptly detected and extinguished”.
The EASA said the XWB-84 engines “are similar but differ in design and service history” to the XWB-97.
Airbus on Friday said the EASA directive “clearly limits these (checks) to the Trent XWB-97 engine and says inspections on the Trent XWB-84 are not warranted based on current available information”.
“I’m sure we’ll discover more as the investigation progresses – and which only EASA can communicate about,” a spokesperson for the European aircraft maker told AFP.
The Airbus issues come as its US rival Boeing has strived to overcome concerns about safety and quality control problems in recent years.
Source: CNA
