By Shawn Gallagher
Cathay Pacific has grounded their Airbus A350-1000 fleet, following an engine inspection that discovered repairs that needed to be made on the engine.
The Hong Kong based airline stated that there are 15 aircraft with components that need replacement. Rolls Royce is the sole manufacturer of the A350 engines, and they are working closely with Cathay Pacific during these inspections and repairs.
Other operators of the A350-1000 have yet to find issues and continue to fly the plane while monitoring the situation. Rolls Royce would also update airlines on any developments. This is the first kind of issue to occur on any Airbus A350 in the world.
The incident occurred early Monday, September 2nd on Cathay Pacific flight CX383. The scheduled flight to Zurich had to turn back soon after takeoff after running into an issue. Upon conducting a safety inspection on all of their A350 fleet, they’ve now decided to ground the aircraft to conduct repairs. They have not given details regarding specific engine components that need to be repaired.
So far, 34 round trip flights have been canceled, mostly on routes within Asia.
Cathay Pacific does not expect the grounding to last long and hopes to have all of their A350s back in the air by this weekend.
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