Boeing 777s with same engine as Denver plane temporarily banned from UK airspace

Debris was scattered across a residential area in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday after an aircraft experiened engine failure following take-off
Leah Sinclair22 February 2021

All Boeing 777s with the same engine as that of the plane which caught fire after take-off from Denver will be temporarily banned from entering UK airspace, Grant Shapps has said.

On Saturday, debris was scattered across a residential area in Denver, Colorado, after a Boeing 777 experienced engine failure following take-off.

Passengers on board the United Airlines plane described hearing a “large explosion” shortly after take-off as the aircraft lost part of its engine.

However, the plane carrying 231 passengers and 10 crew on board, was able to land safely at Denver airport with no injuries reported.

In a tweet on Monday, the Transport Secretary said: “After issues this weekend, Boeing B777s with Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 series engines will be temporarily banned from entering the UK airspace.

United Airlines flight UA328 returns to Denver International Airport with its starboard engine on fire after it called a Mayday alert
United Airlines flight UA328 returns to Denver International Airport with its starboard engine on fire
via REUTERS

“I will continue to work closely with the @UK_CAA to monitor the situation.”

After the incident on Saturday, police in the town of Broomfield posted photos on Twitter, including an image of what seems to be the front of an engine casing in the garden of a home and debris scattered across a turf field.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that the United Airlines plane was bound for Honolulu and suffered a failure in its right-hand engine.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has already said they will be carrying out an investigation.

Boeing had already recommended grounding all of the 777-model aircraft which have the same type of engine.

“While [an] investigation is ongoing, we recommended suspending operations of the 69 in-service and 59 in-storage 777 aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines,” the company said in a statement.

United Airlines and Japan’s two main operators have already stopped using 56 planes with the same engine.

Initial findings from the NTSB discovered that most of the damage occurred in the right engine, where two fan blades were fractured and other blades also affected.

The main body of the plane suffered only minor damage.

This comes after the Boeing 737 Max was grounded globally in March 2019 following two fatal crashes that left 346 people dead.

In October 2018, all 189 passengers and crew on board Lion Air Flight 610 died when the plane crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta.

Less than five months later, in March 2019, all 157 people on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 died when it crashed minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa, triggering a global grounding of the 737 Max.

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