2nd UPDATE: Engine Trouble On Cathay Pacific Jet Leads To Emergency Landing In Singapore
May 16 2011 - 6:28AM
Dow Jones News
Engine trouble on a Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. (0293.HK) flight
prompted pilots of the Airbus A330 jet to make an emergency landing
in Singapore early Monday, the latest incident involving the Hong
Kong-based carrier's twin-engine regional workhorse.
The Jakarta-bound flight with 136 passengers on board returned
to Singapore at 0157 local time, just over an hour after take-off,
"following a stall warning from the No. 2 engine," Cathay Pacific
said in a statement Monday. It said sparks were reported in one of
the jet's two engines.
Cathay Pacific said the airline and Rolls-Royce Group PLC
(RR.LN), the manufacturer of the plane's engines, are investigating
the cause of the malfunction, and that the incident has been
reported to the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department.
Cathay Pacific said pilots of flight CX715 shut down the
Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engine after receiving the alert and returned
the aircraft to Singapore.
Fire crews at the Singapore airport doused the sparks in the No.
2 engine after the aircraft's emergency landing, the airline said,
adding passengers and crew on the aircraft "disembarked without
incident" via mobile staircases. The passengers were provided with
accommodation in Singapore hotels.
Singapore Changi Airport said it closed a runway for more than
an hour because of the Cathay Pacific incident, though flight
operations weren't affected as another runway remained in use.
Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department, which has received a
notification from Cathay Pacific, said Monday the Singapore
aviation authority is investigating the incident and it will render
assistance as necessary.
"We can appreciate the concern and anxiety felt by the
passengers during the incident, but our captain and his crew were
in control of the situation at all times," Cathay Pacific said.
"They reacted exactly as they are trained to do, shut down the
affected engine and returned the aircraft safely to Singapore."
Modern twin-engine jets are designed to function normally with
only one engine operating, according to aviation experts.
As one of Asia's best-managed carriers, Cathay Pacific has had a
solid safety record in recent decades. However, the latest engine
malfunction follows earlier major incidents the airline has
experienced with the A330 aircraft.
In April 2010, a Cathay Pacific A330 made an emergency landing
in Hong Kong after both engines malfunctioned as it approached the
city, resulting in a much higher-than-normal touchdown speed that
led to a small fire in its landing gear as the brakes
overheated.
The Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department said in August that fuel
contamination was the likely cause of the rare malfunction.
In 1997, Cathay Pacific grounded its entire fleet of A330s for
nearly two weeks because of problems with the planes' Rolls-Royce
Trent 700 engines. Trouble with the gearboxes of the Rolls-Royce
engines caused several in-flight engine shutdowns, prompting the
carrier to take the aircraft out of service for emergency
modifications.
Cathay Pacific and its China-focused unit, Hong Kong Dragon
Airlines Ltd., have around 50 A330-300s in service operating mainly
regional and Australia routes, making the airline group the world's
biggest operator of the aircraft type.
In March, the blue-chip airline, which is controlled by
conglomerate Swire Pacific Ltd. (0019.HK), said it agreed to buy a
total of 25 aircraft at a total catalog price of US$5.99 billion,
including 15 A330-300 long-haul aircraft from Airbus, as part of
the airline's expansion plans.
Cathay Pacific's shares ended down 1.6% at HK$18.98, tracking
the 1.4% decline in the benchmark Hang Seng Index, though the stock
had earlier fallen as much as 2.9% in the afternoon session.
-By Joanne Chiu, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002;
joanne.chiu@dowjones.com
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