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4 September, 2024

Cathay Pacific checks A350 fleet after engine component failure identified

By Grant Jones

Cathay Pacific has grounded the majority of its 48-strong fleet of Airbus A350-1000s and cancelled dozens of flights following an in-flight engine component failure.

There are no flights currently cancelled in Australia or New Zealand, a spokesperson told Travel Weekly.

The problem was identified several minutes after take-off on flight CX383 from Hong Kong to Zurich on Monday. The five-year-old A350-1000 plane circled and dumped fuel over the sea before landing in Hong Kong 75 minutes after its departure.

Richard de Crespigny AM, the Qantas pilot-in-command of the Airbus A380 which suffered an uncontained engine failure in 2010 that resulted in severe damage to much of the aircraft, before he managed to safely land the plane at Changi Airport in Singapore told Nine Today Show “it’s better it’s been late than to not arrive at all”.

“The crew did a great job,” he said of the Cathay incident. “They isolated the engine, they dumped fuel, they landed everyone got off safe. This is a good example of the safety culture working well. And you have to compliment Cathay Pacific.

“These things that tap into one aircraft tend to come out across all the range, so the Cathay must be absolutely congratulated.

“(The component) is used only on the 1000 version of the A350 the long range one. It’s only been in production since 2018, it’s flown 2 million hours. But when these problems happen on one engine, they tend to indicate they’re happening on other engines.

“One part’s failed, and now we’ve identified we’re going to fix it. We ground the fleet, we go back and we learn, adjust, retry. That’s why aviation is so safe. This is the best example of a safety culture working to keep you safe.”

Qantas have some of the A350-1000 on order.

“The (Qantas) Sunrise Project that will come out in about two years, will be powered by the A350-1000. This is the aircraft that’s had this problem. It will be fixed, of course, by then,” he said.

The Cathay A350-1000 aircraft is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines, with the manufacturer saying it was aware of the airline’s inspection of its fleet “to the extent that any components need replacing, spare parts have been secured and the replacement can be completed whilst the engine is on-wing”.

Rolls-Royce is “committed to working closely with the airline, aircraft manufacturer and the relevant authorities to support their efforts”, the statement said.

The company said it will keep other airlines that operate the same engines “fully informed of any relevant developments”.

Three of the Cathay aircraft identified with affected engine components have already had “successful repairs”, the airline said in a statement.

Cathay Pacific expects flight cancelations to decrease in the coming days after it had cancelled at least 34 round-trip flights between Hong Kong and Sydney, Osaka, Tokyo, Taipei, Bangkok and Singapore until the end of Wednesday.

Feature image: Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97.

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Airbus A350-1000s cathay pacific