Investigators fear 'catastrophic event' from metal fatigue in jet engines

Investigators fear 'catastrophic event' from metal fatigue in jet engines



Investigators fear a 'catastrophic event' from metal fatigue in aircraft engines after a blade was found to be missing on a jet that blew on a Southwest Airlines flight on Tuesday.



The New York to Dallas plane was forced into an emergency landing at Philadelphia after shrapnel from the engine smashed a window and almost s*cked businesswoman Jennifer Riordan out of the plane.



Last night, the National Transportation Safety Board said a preliminary examination had revealed one of the CFM56-7B engine's fan blades was separated and missing.  The blade was separated at the point where it would come into the hub and there was evidence of metal fatigue, chairman Robert Sumwalt said.



European regulators this month began requiring an inspection by early next year of the type of engine that blew apart on the flight, and a source said U.S. regulators were near a similar rule. 



In August 2016, a Southwest flight made a safe emergency landing in Pensacola, Florida, after a fan blade separated from the same type of engine, and debris ripped a foot-long hole above the left wing. Investigators found signs of metal fatigue.



The 2016 incident prompted the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to propose ultrasonic inspections of similar fan blades and their replacement should they fail the test.



Sumwalt said last night the NTSB will review whether the engines involved in Tuesday's incident might have been subject to the directive, which is not yet finalised.





We want to look at this particular event and see what the factors are related to this. Maybe they're related to the previous event or maybe not. But we need to understand what's going on here,' said the NTSB chairman. 



The FAA had 'determined the unsafe condition described previously is likely to exist or develop in other products of the same type design,' according to its proposal last year.



The FAA proposal estimated that checks would require two hours of labour per inspection.



'We are very concerned' about metal fatigue, Sumwalt said in the wake of Tuesday's mid-air drama. 'There needs to be proper inspection mechanisms in place to check for this before there's a catastrophic event.'





Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said there were no problems with the plane or its engine when it was inspected on Sunday. He said the plane had gone through 40,000 takeoffs and landings since it was delivered in July 2000. That included 10,000 since its last overhaul.



Flight 1380, bound for Dallas with 144 passengers and five crew members aboard, took off from New York's La Guardia took off at 10.27am on Tuesday.



But 20 minutes into the flight it was forced to divert to Philadelphia after an engine was ripped apart at 30,000ft causing shrapnel to smash a window.



Passengers frantically tried to stop Jennifer Riordan being s*cked out of the plane. The 43-year-old Wells Fargo banking executive later died from her injuries.



At 11.18am, passenger Marty Martinez posted on Facebook a live video of himself on the plane, wearing a breathing mask, as the plane descended.



Hero pilot Tammie Jo Shults took the plane into a sharp descent and made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport at 11.27am.



Photos of the plane on the tarmac showed a missing window and a chunk gone from the left engine, including part of its cover.



A piece of the engine covering was later found in Bernville, Pennsylvania, about 70 miles west of Philadelphia, Sumwalt said.





The CFM56 engine was produced by a joint venture of General Electric Co and France's Safran SA called CFM International and is one of the most common engines, paired with the world's most-sold plane, the Boeing 737.



Boeing and CFM said they will help with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) investigation into the incident. 



The engine will be examined further to understand what caused the failure. The investigation is expected to take 12 to 15 months.



Southwest said Tuesday night that it would inspect similar engines in its fleet over the next 30 days.



The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued an airworthiness directive last month requiring a one-time ultrasonic inspection of each affected fan blade on models of CFM56 engines within nine months of April 2.





It said that CFM had sent a service bulletin recommending inspections, leading regulators to make the directive.