Southwest Expects Minor Disruptions as It Inspects Engines -- 2nd Update

By Robert Wall 

Southwest Airlines Co. said it expected a small number of delays or cancellations each day this week as it conducts engine checks in the wake of an accident that killed a passenger, while other airlines also have stepped up their inspections.

The largest carrier of domestic passengers said about 40 flights were scratched Sunday while the airline checked engines on some of its Boeing Co. 737 planes. The cancellations represented about 1% of its planned Sunday schedule, Southwest said.

"We anticipate minimal delays or cancellations each day this week due to the inspections; as a point of reference, last week's inspections affected fewer than 1 percent of our 4,000 scheduled flights each day," Southwest said in a statement on Monday.

The airline's Flight 1380 last Tuesday suffered an engine failure that spewed parts into the fuselage of the plane, damaged a wing and broke a cabin window. The accident killed passenger Jennifer Riordan.

Accident investigators believe a fan blade on the CFM56-7B engine suffered cracks that led the component to fail during the flight from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Dallas Love Field. The plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

U.S. and European aviation regulators ordered emergency inspections of hundreds of Boeing 737 engines last week knowing that the National Transportation Safety Board was poised to issue nonbinding recommendations. Crash investigators at the NTSB were prepared to urge ultrasound inspections in the wake of the Southwest accident.

But the Federal Aviation Administration and European Aviation Safety Agency beat investigators to the punch. The FAA and European agency on Friday said airlines would have to perform ultrasound inspections within 20 days for some older engines. Regulators are considering expanding the ultrasound checks to an additional 2,000 newer engines by August.

The NTSB has come under criticism from regulators and independent safety experts for allegedly slow progress investigating a similar 2016 Southwest engine accident.

Europe's largest budget airline, Ryanair Holdings PLC, a big operator of Boeing Co. 737 planes, said Monday it expected to complete newly mandated engine checks without any impact on flights.

Engine maker CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric Co. and France's Safran SA, on Friday issued its own upgraded inspection guidance and said Monday it was aiding 60 airlines on the inspection efforts.

--Doug Cameron contributed to this article.

Write to Robert Wall at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 23, 2018 18:02 ET (22:02 GMT)

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