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France’s Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authority says a Swiss Airbus A220 diverted to Paris after suffering an engine failure enroute from London to Geneva.
The Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la Sécurité de l’Aviation civile (BEA) described the incident that occurred on Tuesday (European time) on HB-JCC as serious in a Twitter post.
⚠️ Incident grave de l’@Airbus #A220 @FlySWISS HB-JCC survenu aujourd’hui / Défaillance moteur @prattandwhitney lors d’un vol Londres > Genève avec déroutement sur Paris / @BEA_Aero s’est rendu sur place / enquête déléguée à @NTSB Relations presse: @NTSB_Newsroom pic.twitter.com/4cQvimvjQi
— BEA ✈️ ?? ?? (@BEA_Aero) October 15, 2019
While the BEA said it had sent its own representatives to the site, it said the incident would be investigated by the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
In response to the incident, Swiss chose to ground its entire fleet of 29 A220s – comprised of nine A220-100s and 20 A220-300s – for engine inspections, resulting in a number of cancelled flights. Some A220s were returned to service later on Tuesday, media reports said.
The A220 is powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW1500G engines. The powerplant is also used on the Embraer E190-E2 and E195-E2 regional jets.
Pratt & Whitney told the Reuters news agency it was recommending “additional inspections of the low-pressure compressor for the PW1500G and PW1900G engines”.
“The engines continue to meet all criteria for continued airworthiness,” Pratt & Whitney said.
“We are working closely with our customers to minimise disruption to their operations.”
The incident came the day after the BEA called for volunteers to locate parts of an engine that fell from another Swiss A220 HB-JCM while flying from Geneva to London on July 25 2019. That flight also diverted to Paris
The BEA said in a statement the left engine suffered a mechanical failure and pieces would have fallen in an unpopulated wooded are near Perrigny-sur-Armancon and Cry.
It was seeking about 150 people to join a search alongside investigators and local authorities to be held on November 6 and November 8. It was seeking a piece of the engine made of titanium that was about 70cm in diameter.
The BEA statement noted an identical incident occurred on September 16, with some engine parts that remained in the engine being analysed.
⚠️ Communiqué de presse / appel à volontaires: incident grave de l’@airbus #A220 HB-JCM @flyswiss du 25/07/19 / recherches de pièces tombées au sol : https://t.co/6maam8otPF @DGAC @NTSB @NTSB_Newsroom @prattandwhitney @IGNFrance @bfc_region @Airbus pic.twitter.com/PeGX1MqSQA
— BEA ✈️ ?? ?? (@BEA_Aero) October 14, 2019
Airbus officially took over the A220 program in July 2018.
Previously, the A220 was known as the C Series, with the program owned and managed by Canadian-headquartered Bombardier.
Craigy
says:This is the third engine issue for Swiss. Have any of the other A220 operators had similar problems?
Jeff Carswell
says:This is a bit of a worry.