ATLANTA — Anxiety continues among airline passengers as they board popular twin-engine Boeing 737 jet aircraft, on a variety of airlines, heading out of Hartsfield-Jackson.
Earlier this week, a jet engine on a Southwest Airlines plane blew apart inflight, resulting in one fatality
Friday, April 20, the FAA issued an order for emergency inspection on engines like the ones on the Southwest flights that broke apart and that have made at least 30,000 flights. The airlines have 20 days to comply.
Airlines like Delta and Southwest, with large Boeing 737 fleets, are now working quickly to inspect the engines to re-assure passengers that the engines are safe and sound.
For Southwest, this latest incident involved a titanium fan blade – one of 24 –breaking off, causing extensive damage and one fatality.
The engine type that blew apart power more than 6,700 Boeing 737 twin engine jets around the world.
Delta flies 185 of them, while Southwest flies more than 500 of 700 series, that have engines similar to the ones in both Southwest incidents.
The engines, built by General Electric and a French partner, are one of the most popular jet engines in commercial aviation, powering both commercial and military aircraft.
But now, an accelerated program is underway to inspect the engines using high-tech ultrasound and other devices that can detect metal fatigue not seen by the naked eye.
The FAA first said it would issue a directive within two weeks to require ultrasonic inspections of the fan blades when they reach a certain number of takeoffs and landings with any blades that did not pass muster, having to be replaced. But now that inspection process has been dramatically accelerated, with the engine manufacturer also saying that more jet aircraft may have to be added to the inspection list.
But both Southwest and Delta say they are getting out in front of mandated inspections.
Gary Kelly is both Chairman and CEO of Southwest, and says:
“General Electric provides the guidelines for maintenance and inspection and repairs over the life of the engines. In addition to the GE overhaul work, Southwest conducts periodic inspections at a higher frequency than what is called for by GE.”
Southwest says it hopes to have all its high-tech inspections done within 30 days.
Delta, with 370 of the same engines on its fleet of 737s, says it completed inspections of the engines last year, and is now ahead of FAA directives on the ultrasonic testing.
With a total of more than 8,000 of the engines now in use on both commercial and military aircraft, the engine is considered one of the safest and most efficient in the world.
The goal now is to quickly to meet FAA inspection deadlines, and to reassure passengers flying on those 737's that the engines under the wings are absolutely safe
