At least part of the fleet of the European manufacturer’s flagship long-haul model is to be scrutinized. A Cathay Pacific plane suffered an in-flight incident on Monday.
Back in the hangar for A350s: the European Union will request an emergency inspection of at least part of the fleet of these flagship long-haul Airbus aircraft, after an engine fire on a Cathay Pacific aircraft. While the Hong Kong company had mentioned a “failure” on a Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engine during a flight to Zurich, Switzerland, on Monday, the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) stressed on Thursday that it was a “engine fire in flight, shortly after takeoff”linked a priori to “high pressure fuel lines” defective.
In this incident affecting an A350-1000, the largest of Airbus’ long-haul aircraft, “The fire was quickly detected and extinguished, and the aircraft returned safely to Hong Kong”detailed the EASA in a press release. It said “take precautionary measures to avoid any similar incident”based on preliminary information from the relevant Hong Kong authorities, as well as “device and engine manufacturers”. On occurrence, the AESA “will request an inspection of the A350 fleet, which may involve only a portion of it, to identify and remove all potentially defective high-pressure fuel lines”according to the Agency.
British aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce said on Thursday “working closely together” with EASA “on a one-off preventive engine inspection programme, which may only be applicable to part of the A350 fleet”. “We are keeping our customers informed and await a further announcement from EASA later today.”Rolls-Royce added, assuring that “The Trent XWB engine family had an excellent track record during its nine years of service” with “more than 20 million flight hours”The European agency promised to publish instructions for airlines on Thursday, setting out the scope of these inspections and the deadline for their completion.
Only the A350-1000 is apparently affected
Ces “urgent airworthiness instructions” only apply to aircraft based in Europe, EASA said. Competent authorities in other geographical areas will have to take their own possible measures. According to a source close to the matter, Airbus and Rolls-Royce told airlines on Thursday that only the A350-1000 variant, equipped with the XWB-97, was affected, unlike the smaller A350-900 which runs on a different Rolls-Royce engine, the XWB-84. Contacted by AFP, Airbus was not immediately able to respond to EASA’s announcements on Thursday afternoon.
The A350, the first of which was delivered to Qatar Airways at the end of 2014, has been the European aircraft manufacturer’s largest long-haul aircraft since the end of production of the giant A380 in 2021, capable of carrying up to nearly 500 passengers in the 1000 version. The A350-1000 can travel more than 16,000 km in one go, and even nearly 18,000 in its future configuration. «Sunrise» ordered by the Australian company Qantas to connect Sydney to London in particular.
A competitor to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the A350 has been ordered for 1,327 units, of which 613 have been delivered according to a count stopped at the end of July. But there are only 612 in operation since a ground collision, followed by a fire, of a Japan Airlines aircraft last January. Of this total, only 86 are 1000 versions, according to Airbus. The largest operator of this version is Qatar Airways with 24 aircraft, followed by Cathay Pacific with 18, British Airways (also 18) and Virgin with 12 aircraft. In France, the Dubreuil Group (Air Caraïbes and French Bee) operates five. Air France, for its part, only flies A350-900s.
On Wednesday, Cathay Pacific, which had to cancel 90 flights following Monday’s incident, said it expected operations to return to normal on Saturday after several of its planes were repaired. “fuel lines at engine level” of “15 planes” require replacement and, “Among them, six have already undergone successful repairs”she said. Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department said on Wednesday that it had contacted EASA and other aviation authorities in the sector to inform them of the matter.
Last November, Emirates CEO Tim Clark expressed concern about the longevity of the A350’s engines. Rolls-Royce defended the Trent XWB-97s and said it was taking steps to improve their durability. On the stock market, Airbus shares fell 1.38% in Paris and Rolls Royce 0.58% in London, in falling markets.
