The European Aviation Safety Agency said it was “taking precautionary measures to avoid any similar incident”, based on preliminary information from the relevant Hong Kong authorities, as well as from the “aircraft and engine manufacturers”.
A350s back in the hangar: 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 on Monday, the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) stressed on Thursday that it was an “engine fire in flight, shortly after takeoff”, apparently linked to faulty “high-pressure fuel lines”.
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 to Hong Kong safely,” detailed the EASA in a press release.
The latter said it was “taking precautionary measures to avoid any similar incident”, based on preliminary information from the relevant Hong Kong authorities, as well as from the “manufacturers of the aircraft and the engine”.
In this case, EASA “will request an inspection of the A350 fleet, which may only concern a part of it, to identify and dismantle all potentially defective high-pressure fuel lines”, it added in its press release.
The European agency promised to publish instructions for airlines on Thursday, setting out the scope of these inspections and the deadline before they are carried out.
At the same time, Rolls-Royce said on Thursday that it was “working closely” with EASA “on a one-off preventive engine inspection programme, which may only be applicable to part of the A350 fleet”.
Only the A350-1000 is apparently affected
These “urgent airworthiness directives” only apply to aircraft based in Europe, EASA told AFP. The 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 A350-900, a smaller version which receives a different Rolls-Royce engine, the XWB-84.
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 cover more than 16,000 km in one go, and even nearly 18,000 in its future “Sunrise” configuration ordered by the Australian company Qantas to connect Sydney to London in particular.
613 devices delivered
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 completed at the end of July.
But there are only 612 in operation since a ground collision and fire involving a Japan Airlines plane last January.
Of this total, only 86 are 1000 versions, according to Airbus. The largest operator of this variant 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 had been repaired.
“The fuel lines at the engine level” of “15 aircraft” require replacement and, “of these, six have already undergone successful repairs,” she assured.
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 has defended the Trent XWB-97s and said it is taking steps to improve their durability.
