U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a new airworthiness directive (AD) for Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 passenger aircraft powe...
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a new airworthiness directive (AD) for Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 passenger aircraft powered by General Electric (GE) GEnx-1B engines.
The AD requires revising the airplane flight manual (AFM) to provide the flight crew a revised fan ice removal procedure and a new associated mandatory flight crew briefing to reduce the likelihood of engine damage due to fan ice shedding.
Susceptibility to heavy fan blade rubs, could result in engine damage and a possible in-flight non-restartable power loss of one or both engines. For airplanes with certain engines, this AD also requires reworking the fan stator module assembly on GEnx-1B PIP2 engines or replacing at least one of the engine.
This AD was prompted by a recent engine fan blade rub event that caused an in-flight non-restartable power loss, occurred in icing conditions at an altitude of 20,000 feet.
The significant fan rub event involving a GEnx-1B Performance Improvement Program (PIP) 2 engine, was apparently caused by partial fan ice shedding and a resulting fan imbalance that in turn caused substantial damage to the engine and an in-flight non restartable power loss.
FAA is investigating the issue with Boeing and GE; however, which appears to be a result of susceptibility to heavy fan blade rubs common to the GEnx-1B PIP2 engine.
The other engine on the event airplane was an older design GEnx-1B PIP1 configuration that incurred expected wear and minor damage during the icing event and continued to operate normally.
The urgency of this issue stems from the safety concern over continued safe flight and landing for airplanes that are powered by two GEnx-1B PIP2 engines operating in a similar environment to the event airplane. In this case both GEnx-1B PIP2 engines may be similarly damaged and unable to be restarted in flight. The potential for common cause failure of both engines in flight is an urgent safety issue, FAA says.
The AD requires revising the airplane flight manual (AFM) to provide the flight crew a revised fan ice removal procedure and a new associated mandatory flight crew briefing to reduce the likelihood of engine damage due to fan ice shedding.
Susceptibility to heavy fan blade rubs, could result in engine damage and a possible in-flight non-restartable power loss of one or both engines. For airplanes with certain engines, this AD also requires reworking the fan stator module assembly on GEnx-1B PIP2 engines or replacing at least one of the engine.
This AD was prompted by a recent engine fan blade rub event that caused an in-flight non-restartable power loss, occurred in icing conditions at an altitude of 20,000 feet.
The significant fan rub event involving a GEnx-1B Performance Improvement Program (PIP) 2 engine, was apparently caused by partial fan ice shedding and a resulting fan imbalance that in turn caused substantial damage to the engine and an in-flight non restartable power loss.
FAA is investigating the issue with Boeing and GE; however, which appears to be a result of susceptibility to heavy fan blade rubs common to the GEnx-1B PIP2 engine.
The other engine on the event airplane was an older design GEnx-1B PIP1 configuration that incurred expected wear and minor damage during the icing event and continued to operate normally.
The urgency of this issue stems from the safety concern over continued safe flight and landing for airplanes that are powered by two GEnx-1B PIP2 engines operating in a similar environment to the event airplane. In this case both GEnx-1B PIP2 engines may be similarly damaged and unable to be restarted in flight. The potential for common cause failure of both engines in flight is an urgent safety issue, FAA says.
