FAA To Order Inspections After Southwest Engine Failure

The US Federal Aviation Administration said it will issue an airworthiness directive within the next two weeks requiring inspections of CFM56 engines of the type involved in the Southwest Airlines flight WN1380 explosion on Wednesday.

The directive will require airlines operating some older CFM56-7B engines to perform ultrasonic inspections of engine fan blades after they reach a specific number of takeoffs and landings. Fan blades that fail the inspection will need to be replaced, the FAA said.

The Southwest flight diverted to Philadelphia after the left engine exploded, piercing a hole in the aircraft. A passenger, Jennifer Riordan, was partially sucked out of the aircraft as it decompressed, before other passengers were able to pull her back in. She later died of her injuries.

The plane, a Boeing 737-700 carrying 143 passengers and five crew, was on a flight from New York’s La Guardia airport to Dallas Love Field when the explosion happened about 20 minutes out of New York.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators to Philadelphia Airport, and its chairman Robert Sumwalt said later that an initial inspection of the damaged engine showed a fan blade was missing. He said there was evidence of metal fatigue in the fractured blade.

Sumwalt said he had been advised by Southwest’s chief executive Gary Kelly that the airline will immediately start “enhanced inspections”, including ultrasonic inspection of engines on its entire 737 fleet.

The NTSB investigation is expected to take 12-15 months, Sumwalt said.

Another of Southwest’s 737-700s suffered a similar uncontained engine failure in 2016 on a flight to Orlando. The NTSB said a fan blade separated from the fan disk and showed evidence consistent with fatigue crack growth. The FAA issued an airworthiness directive requiring ultrasonic inspections after that event.

The CFM56 engine is manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture between GE Aviation and Safran Aircraft Engines.