A United Airlines Boeing 777 had a frightening scene on Saturday when its engine exploded into flames in mid-air and debris fell along the way.
The National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday that a preliminary assessment showed that the fan blades of the airliner’s Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engine were damaged in a way that was related to metal fatigue.
The commission said one of the 22 fan blades of the engine in question broke at the root and another snapped in the middle. A piece of fiberglass where the plane’s wing attaches to the fuselage was punctured in the accident, but the plane suffered no structural damage.
In February 2018 and December 2020, similar failures occurred in the Pratt & Whitney engines on board United Airlines and Japan Airlines Boeing 777 airliners, respectively, and after investigation, the United Airlines airliner accident was the result of a fatigue fracture of the fan blades, while the Japan Airlines airliner had two damaged fan blades, one of which had a metal fatigue crack.
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