Motortrouble (GE90, PW4170 og CFM56) - Curt Lewis

Incident: Royal Flight B773 at Moscow on Nov 6th 2019, engine shut down in flight

A Royal Flight Airlines Boeing 777-300, registration VQ-BGP performing flight RL-7571 from Moscow Sheremetyevo (Russia) to Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) with 448 people on board, was climbing through FL220 when the crew received an oil pressure indication for one of the engines (GE90), shut the engine down, dumped fuel and returned to Moscow Sheremetyevo for a safe landing about 75 minutes after departure. The aircraft remained on the ground for about 16 hours, then departed again and is estimated to reach Punta Cana with a delay of about 17 hours. Incident: Peace B735 at Lagos on Nov 5th 2019, engine shut down in flight An Air Peace Boeing 737-500, registration 5N-BUJ performing flight P4-7150 from Lagos to Owerri (Nigeria) with 90 passengers and 6 crew, was climbing out of Lagos when the crew needed to shut an engine (CFM56) down. The aircraft returned to Lagos for a safe landing about 25 minutes after departure. Nigeria's Air Accident Investigation Board reported they opened an investigation into the occurrence. ATSB recommends mandating PW4170 engine modification after incident (Australia) The ATSB has issued safety recommendations to the FAA and engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney calling for them to maximise a modification that would prevent a component failure of the PW4170 series engine which powers some Airbus A330 airliners. The recommendations follow an ATSB investigation into a  18 January 2018 incident where a Malaysia Airlines Airbus A330-300, which was operating a scheduled passenger flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, diverted to Alice Springs due to a malfunctioning left engine. Subsequent disassembly and inspection of the affected engine, a Pratt & Whitney PW4170, identified that, as a result of exposure to elevated temperatures, a segment of the third stage outer transition duct (OTD) had distorted and fractured. The large fractured section caused a blockage within the engine that created turbulent airflow, partially blocking a low pressure turbine vane inlet stage and causing an increase in exhaust gas temperature. That in turn led to low pressure turbine blade failure, high vibration and compressor stall/surge events. The ATSB investigation established that there has been a total of 16 similar events globally within the past four years, all attributed to the 'Advantage 70' increased thrust modification for the PW4000-100 series engine, including five involving Malaysia Airlines aircraft. The modification increased the engine outer duct gas path temperature, which led to the distortion and liberation of the outer transition duct segments. Pratt & Whitney, which had ceased production of PW4000-100 series engines for the Airbus A330 in July 2017, has now redesigned the engine's OTD to withstand higher temperatures. The newly designed hardware will be available for retrofit from November 2019 and service bulletins will recommend installation of the new ducts at the operator's discretion.