Cathay Pacific Grounds Its Airbus A350-1000s
For all those fans who think only #Boeing has issues with their aircraft these days:
Airbus is taking a turn on the negative-publicity rollercoaster. Cathay Pacific, the flagship carrier for Hong Kong, announced it has grounded its fleet of Airbus A350-1000s for inspection after finding faulty engine components in 15 of 18 aircraft. According to a report today (Sept. 3) in online outlet Channel News Asia, Cathay Pacific Flight CX383 took off from Hong Kong for Zurich, Switzerland, yesterday, but turned back after the failure of an unspecified component of one of its Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines. The twin-aisle Airbus landed safely 75 minutes after takeoff, following two holding circuits to burn fuel.
Reuters reported that a person familiar with the incident said the discrepancy involved a fuel nozzle. It is not clear whether the engine lost power. Cathay Pacific said in a statement that the flight was the “first of its type to suffer such failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide.”