lowecur
Well-known member
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- Sep 14, 2003
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Seems to be a maintenance problem, so US carriers are not worried. Hope they're right.
January 22, 2004 17:08
Japanese Airline Grounds Flights
By Bob Cox, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Jan. 22--American Airlines and U.S. safety regulators said Wednesday that they're closely monitoring developments at a Japanese airline that is having a rash of problems with MD-80-series aircraft engines.
Japan Air System was forced to ground most of its 25 MD-80-series jets in recent days for emergency inspections after discovering cracked engine parts. The inspections were undertaken after two of the aircraft had engine vibration problems and had to abort flights on successive days.
American, with 335 of the twin-engine, single-aisle jets, is the world's largest operator of MD-80s.
"We're monitoring the situation closely, but at this time we're not being told to do any inspections," American spokesman John Hotard said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Paul Turk said the agency has not seen evidence to justify ordering U.S. airlines to undertake any additional engine inspections.
The FAA, Turk said, is awaiting further information from engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, which is investigating the problems with the widely used JT8D-series engines.
"We think it's confined to JAS and is an operations or maintenance issue for them," Turk said.
The Japanese airline grounded more than 200 flights through Wednesday while it inspected its MD-80s.
Pratt & Whitney spokesman Mark Sullivan said the airline had discovered minute cracks in compressor vanes, small welded pieces of steel that direct the airflow into the jet engine compressor.
"It's not common to see minute cracks when you do an overhaul," Sullivan said. It's extremely rare for one to crack enough to cause engine vibration in flight. When that occurs, the pilot gets a warning in the cockpit, shuts the engine down and continues the flight on one engine.
Hotard said American, with more than 700 of the JT8D engines in use on its fleet of MD-80s, reviewed its records and found only five similar instances in the last nine years. "It just has not been an issue for us."
January 22, 2004 17:08
Japanese Airline Grounds Flights
By Bob Cox, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Jan. 22--American Airlines and U.S. safety regulators said Wednesday that they're closely monitoring developments at a Japanese airline that is having a rash of problems with MD-80-series aircraft engines.
Japan Air System was forced to ground most of its 25 MD-80-series jets in recent days for emergency inspections after discovering cracked engine parts. The inspections were undertaken after two of the aircraft had engine vibration problems and had to abort flights on successive days.
American, with 335 of the twin-engine, single-aisle jets, is the world's largest operator of MD-80s.
"We're monitoring the situation closely, but at this time we're not being told to do any inspections," American spokesman John Hotard said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Paul Turk said the agency has not seen evidence to justify ordering U.S. airlines to undertake any additional engine inspections.
The FAA, Turk said, is awaiting further information from engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, which is investigating the problems with the widely used JT8D-series engines.
"We think it's confined to JAS and is an operations or maintenance issue for them," Turk said.
The Japanese airline grounded more than 200 flights through Wednesday while it inspected its MD-80s.
Pratt & Whitney spokesman Mark Sullivan said the airline had discovered minute cracks in compressor vanes, small welded pieces of steel that direct the airflow into the jet engine compressor.
"It's not common to see minute cracks when you do an overhaul," Sullivan said. It's extremely rare for one to crack enough to cause engine vibration in flight. When that occurs, the pilot gets a warning in the cockpit, shuts the engine down and continues the flight on one engine.
Hotard said American, with more than 700 of the JT8D engines in use on its fleet of MD-80s, reviewed its records and found only five similar instances in the last nine years. "It just has not been an issue for us."
