PARIS :Europe’s aviation regulator on Thursday linked a recent engine fire on a Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 to a possible problem with the maintenance of its Rolls-Royce engines.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) earlier this month ordered airlines to carry out visual inspections on Rolls-Royce XWB-97 engines after the incident involving a Zurich-bound Airbus A350-1000 on Sept 2.
“In-service and in-shop inspections since then have identified that a specific cleaning process available during engine refurbishment may lead to fuel manifold main fuel hose degradation”, the agency said in a statement.
The announcement came after Hong Kong investigators confirmed they had found hole in a fuel hose after leaking fuel caught fire in one of the Rolls-Royce engines of a Cathay Pacific Airbus A350-1000 jet, forcing it to turn back to base. Nobody was injured in the incident.
Their initial report also said the investigation – which has not been completed – would range from design to production, installation and maintenance and that authorities would seek more information from manufacturers and maintenance shops.
Responsibility for the detailed analysis lies with the Hong Kong authority whose investigation is continuing.
In a revised bulletin, EASA widened the scope of its earlier call for engine checks to include all models of A350 jet that had already been through a certain number of maintenance visits.
But it downgraded the measure by dropping its revised airworthiness directive out of the most serious “emergency” category, suggesting it is less concerned about an immediate safety risk.
Analysts have said the visual checks and measurements of parts are not expected to need significant time or resources.
