FAA To Lift Grounding Of United 777s

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Just as traffic picks up again, United Airlines will be able to resume the use of 52 of its Boeing 777s after some modifications. The FAA is finalizing airworthiness directives that will lift the grounding of 777s with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines. One of the United aircraft had an uncontained failure of one of those engines that sent big chunks of debris onto a suburb of Denver in February of 2021. No one was hurt and the plane landed safely, but the failure prompted the grounding of aircraft with that engine. United is the only carrier with that combination in the U.S.

To get them back on the schedule, United will have to beef up the engine inlet to withstand blade failures and installation of debris shields on the thrust reverser inner wall. There are also repetitive inspections required. United said the ADs are “a good and safe outcome for our industry and United customers.”

Russ Niles
Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AVweb. He has been a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb 22 years ago. He and his wife Marni live in southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Why pick on United—just because the spec’d the approved airframe/engine combination?

    United bought the aircraft from Boeing—WITH THE FAA APPROVED TYPE CERTIFICATE for the airplane and engine. Why isn’t the FAA taking on any responsibility?

    It USED TO BE that an FAA Type Certificate MEANT something—an implied reassurance that the aircraft or component had been thoroughly tested, vetted, and certified. I guess that’s no longer the case—and if it IS the case, can FAA certification ever mean anything again?

  2. Seems to me it all worked out OK. By government standards you might say it was even a fairly quick process.

    And yes, it would certainly be nice if there were some power or agency to which we could submit our complex creations, have them locate and direct the correction of every design weakness or process error, and thereafter rest with the certainty that, thanks to their godlike infallibility, the creation could never suffer from any unforeseen defect or failure during its subsequent use. Unfortunately, thousands of years of experience would seem to indicate that, just possibly, that might be nothing but wishful thinking.

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