Following the engine failure of US flight Boeing 777, the chief air regulator has said authorities have been working “non-stop” to identify the cause behind the failure on Tuesday. 

The engine failure resulted in the aircraft crashing into suburban Denver, without any casualties. It was on its way to Honolulu. 

 At an air safety Townhall meeting, Steve Dickson, Federal Aviation Administration head said, “We want to understand what happened and take the necessary steps to prevent a similar recurrence from happening. We’re fortunate there were no fatalities or injuries.”

Also Read: All Boeing 777 jets with same PW engines as United Airlines’ Denver flight grounded 

The agency is developing new airworthiness regulations to require stepped-up inspections.

The Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) has been facing questions on overlooking improper inspection and certification of Boeing 737 MAX since it has been grounded after two fatal crashes. 

Even prior to the Denver incident, US air safety regulators had been weighing stricter inspections on the jets and their Pratt & Whitney engines, US officials said Tuesday.

Also Read: US FAA orders extra inspection of Boeing 777 jets after Colorado engine failure

In the wake of a February 2018 incident, the FAA had to review 9000 fan blade inspection reports. Following this, they issued a new airworthiness directive, setting new rules for inspection. 

The FAA also had to review maintenance history and inspection records after a Japan Airlines fan blade was found to be fractured. Even though the flight landed safely, the inspection was done last December “to determine the cause of the fracture and was evaluating whether to adjust blade inspections.”

According to a briefing done by the National Transportation Safety Board, it was too soon to conclude if the cause of the Denver crash was the same problem faced by the Japanese flight. Both flights had Boeing 777 and Pratt & Whitney engine.

“A preliminary on-scene exam indicates damage consistent with metal fatigue,” NTSB Chair Robert Sumwalt told the briefing.

He said two fan blades fractured on the number two engine on the Boeing 777-200 on Saturday. One of them was later found on a soccer field, while the other remained lodged in the engine.

The NTSB plans also to look at the inspection record on the United plane to see “who knew what when what could have been done and what should have been done,” Sumwalt said.

“Fatigue means that you can have a crack in the material and when you load it again and again, the crack slowly grows,” said Robert Kielb, a professor at Duke University’s school of engineering.

“This is an example of an event where we learn something about the design 20 years after it goes into service, and then we immediately ground the fleet, figure out what’s going on and fix it.” After the Denver incident, Boeing said all 128 of the 777s with Pratt & Whitney engines were grounded. Out of the 128 planes, only 69 planes were in service. 

Japan Airlines, All Nippon and South Korean airlines Asiana and Korean Air were all adversely impacted. United removed 2r planes from service. 

On Monday night, a Delta Air Lines flight on a Boeing 757 en route to Seattle from Atlanta was diverted to Salt Lake City “out of an abundance of caution following an indicator warning of a possible problem with one of its engines,” a Delta spokesman said.

“The flight landed safely without incident and taxied to the gate without assistance.”

Boeing only recently resumed deliveries of the 737 MAX following a 20-month global grounding after two crashes killed 346 people.

The MAX began returning to commercial service in late 2020, with airline travel still depressed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In lieu of the COVID-19 pandemic, Boeing executives had said that they expected to take approximately three years for flight activity to return back to pre-COVID-19 levels. 

Michel Merluzeau, a consultancy AIR expert said, “It’s not really a problem for Boeing, it’s more an issue of maintenance — how United or Pratt & Whitney is maintaining engines that have been in use for a while.” 

The episode “is an embarrassing headline, but as a practical issue, it will have no impact on Boeing,” said Scott Hamilton of Leeham News, an aviation news site.