DGCA monitoring inflight shutdowns, ministry reviews safety issues

Smita Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 9

The Ministry of Civil Aviation & DGCA (Directorate General Civil Aviation) reviewed the position relating to safety issues in respect of P&W (Pratt & Whitney) NEO engines on Tuesday.

The review comes in the wake of reports of inflight shutdowns and a first of its kind incident ever globally, when smoke engulfed an Indigo Airbus A320 NEO forcing it to make an emergency landing in Kolkata. The smoke was triggered by an oil leak as the P&W engines powering the plane developed a snag on December 10, 2018. Tuesday's meeting was attended by senior representatives of P&W, Airbus, Indigo and Go Air.

"It was noted that the Inflight Shutdown (IFSD) on account of these NEO engines in India has averaged 0.02 per 1,000 engine flight hours which is considerably lower than the stringent global benchmark of 0.05 IFSD rates per 1,000 engine flight hours. So far in India, there have been 12 IFSDs since entry into service of NEO engines beginning from March, 2016," said a ministry statement.

The review found that most of these In Flight Shut Downs and other related incidents have happened due to failure of "Number 3 Bearing" seal, failure of "Knife Edge Seal", erosion of combustion chamber material, Low Pressure Turbine Rotor Blades damage and issues relating to the Main Gear Box.Corrective action has been taken by P&W and the airlines in respect of all except issues relating to Main Gear Box which is a recent phenomenon, said officials. 

The P&W engines have faced constant technical snags over the past two years . Indigo and Go Air have some 90 A320 Neo aircrafts in use powered by the P&W engines. However, according to DGCA, based on exchanges with the manufacturers and the Certifying Regulatory Authority for these engines (FAA, USA), it has been noted that FAA and its European counterpart EASA have not declared these engines as unsafe. "Based on these latest interactions, DGCA will issue an Additional Directive relating to Safety Protocols within a week to the airlines concerned. The situation is being continuously monitored by DGCA as part of its safety oversight system," said the Ministry.

"Pratt & Whitney appreciated the thoughtful exchange of information with the Ministry and DGCA. All parties are now aligned on the status of the GTF program in India, whose reliability has greatly improved over the last year. The GTF program continues to be certified to the industry's highest safety standards," P&W said in a statement.