(Reuters) – Cathay Pacific Airways said on Monday it had begun an inspection of its entire fleet of 48 Airbus A350s and cancelled some flights as a safety precaution after the Hong Kong-based carrier found an engine component fault on one of its planes.
On Monday, a group plane had to interrupt its flight and return to Zurich following a component failure. This is the first time that this component has failed on an A350, Cathay Pacific Airways said.
According to a source familiar with the matter, the incident was caused by a problem with a fuel injector inside a Rolls-Royce XWB-97 jet engine.
The group said it had cancelled 24 return flights by the end of Tuesday, and added that a number of aircraft would be grounded for several days while the inspection process was completed.
According to data from Flightradar24, the affected aircraft is an A350-1000, the larger of the two twin-engine A350 models.
These are powered by the XWB-97, the largest jet engine from the British Rolls-Royce group.
According to the same data, the aircraft was delivered in January 2019.
An Airbus spokesman referred questions to the airline and Rolls-Royce.
The British company – the sole supplier of engines for the A350 aircraft – said it was aware of an incident involving the Cathay flight from Hong Kong to Zurich and confirmed that the flight was powered by Trent XWB-97 engines.
“Rolls-Royce is committed to working closely with Cathay, Airbus and the relevant authorities to support their investigation into this incident,” the group said.
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment on a possible problem with the fuel injectors.
The airline said it had identified a number of identical components that needed to be replaced, adding that replacement parts had been obtained and repair work was underway.
It is coordinating with Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department, as well as Airbus, she said.
It is unclear when the affected Rolls-Royce XWB-97 engine was first installed on the aircraft. Experts say airlines and manufacturers sometimes swap engines to accommodate maintenance schedules.
At 16:12 GMT, Airbus fell by 1.37% on the Paris Stock Exchange.
Rolls-Royce shares ended the session with a loss of 6.4%.
(Reporting by Himanshi Akhand in Bengaluru, Joanna plucinska in London and Tim Hepher in Paris; Corentin Chappron and Diana Mandiá, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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