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Cathay Pacific stops flights for A350 checks, other airlines await guidance

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways is checking all of its Airplane A350 jets after the inflight failure of an engine part on Monday, but other airline companies have not yet been provided guidelines to take a look at comparable engines, carriers said.

Cathay Pacific cancelled 24 return flights through completion of Wednesday to provide it time to check its fleet of 48 Rolls-Royce powered A350s after a part stopped working on among its A350-1000 widebody planes minutes after liftoff from Hong Kong.

Information from flight tracking service FlightRadar24 showed other significant operators of the A350-1000 and the smaller sized, more popular A350-900 seemed flying their airplane normally on Tuesday.

Tokyo-based Japan Airlines (JAL), which has five A350-1000s that are all less than a years of age, stated it had actually asked Rolls-Royce to learn more and had actually not stopped A350 flights in the meantime.

If the engine producer takes any additional action, we will react accordingly, a JAL spokesperson said.

Rolls-Royce had actually not yet issued a directive to airline companies regarding possible assessments, according to a market source who was not authorised to speak openly about the matter.

The engine manufacturer stated in a statement it was aware of the incident and was devoted to working carefully with Cathay Pacific, Airplane and authorities carrying out an examination.

Cathay Pacific has not defined which engine component failed, however the provider stated it was the very first of its type to suffer such failure on any A350 airplane worldwide.

An individual knowledgeable about the matter informed Reuters the occurrence involved an issue with a fuel nozzle inside a XWB-97 engine, the Rolls-Royce model utilized on the A350-1000.

Experts state such issues are unusual however, disallowing a much deeper flaw, normally raise fewer alarms than the failure of one of the significant turning parts such as a turbine blade. Nevertheless, any prevalent more inspections could be disruptive to airlines.

Airplane said in a declaration it was in contact with Rolls-Royce and Cathay Pacific and using complete technical assistance.

' PRECAUTIONARY PROCEDURE'

Taiwan's China Airlines, which runs 15 A350-900s but no A350-1000s, stated its fleet did not utilize the affected engines, so its operations would not be affected.

The company will continue to take notice of the instructions of the original producer and take the initiative to arrange for screening operations to make sure the security of airplane operations, it stated in a declaration.

Although the part failure happened on among its 18 A350-1000 jets, Cathay Pacific stated it was likewise inspecting its 30 A350-900s as a precautionary measure.

The airline company stated it had actually identified a variety of the exact same engine components that require to be replaced however did not state on which design airplane.

There are around 88 A350-1000 jets in operation worldwide, according to Swiss aviation intelligence company ch-aviation.

The leading six operators are Qatar Airways with 24 planes, British Airways with 18, Cathay Pacific with 18, Virgin Atlantic with 12 and Etihad Airways and JAL with five each.

Qatar Airways, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Etihad did not right away react to ask for remark.

Cathay Pacific shares slipped as much as 0.9% on Tuesday.

The flight legs it has cancelled in between Hong Kong and Sydney, Osaka, Tokyo, Taipei, Bangkok and Singapore through the end of Wednesday represent around 2.4% of the number it was set up to run per week in September, according to Cirium flight schedule information.

Rolls-Royce shares closed 6.5% lower on Monday.

(source: Reuters)