The US Army has decided to ground its entire fleet of CH-47 Chinook dual rotor helicopters after army officials were made aware of a small number of engine fires, US officials told the Wall Street Journal. 

The engine fires did not result in any injuries or deaths said a US official saying that the one of them had occurred in the last few days. 

The official response from the US Army Materiel Command is that the Chinook fleet is being grounded on account of “an abundance of caution”. However, US officials told the Wall Street Journal that over 70 helicopters have an engine part that is suspected to be the problem. 

“The Army has identified the root cause of fuel leaks that caused a small number of engine fires among an isolated number of H-47 helicopters, and is implementing corrective measures to resolve this issue,” spokeswoman for the US Army, Cynthia Smith told Bloomberg in a statement. 

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The Army’s entire 400-strong fleet of heavy-lift helicopters was grounded over the last 24 hours after it was found that certain components of the engines, manufactured by Honeywell, did not meet the company’s design specifications, Honeywell told Bloomberg in a statement. 

Additionally, Honeywell found that the problematic parts had not “originated or were part of any Honeywell production or Honeywell-overhauled engines.” The company has said that it is currently working to ensure the Army receives replacements for the parts in question.

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The Chinook has been a key part of the Army’s logistics strategy since it was first introduced in the Vietnam war in 1965. Since then, the Boeing-designed helicopters have spawned sixteen variants and have been the workhorse of the Army for the past six decades. The aircrafts have seen extensive use in several wars including the the Falklands War, the various Libyan Wars as well as repeated use in Afghanistan and Iraq.