Word: faa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...summer of unprecedented air disasters, the Federal Aviation Administration was taking no chances. Investigators had discovered a crack in the airplane engine that caught fire on a Boeing 737 jet in Manchester, England, two weeks ago, causing an explosion and fire that killed 55 passengers. In reaction, the FAA ordered U.S. airlines to schedule inspections of all similar JT8D-15 airplane engines made by Pratt & Whitney, the nation's largest manufacturer of aircraft engines...
...associated with midair aircraft emergencies: the National Transportation Safety Board has reported problems with the turbine disks on five occasions in the past two years. But at least two-thirds of the 1,000 commercial jets in the U.S. that use the JT8D-15 are already subject to stringent FAA-approved maintenance programs, and will not require further inspection under the order...
...passenger fleet and causing flight delays of up to seven hours at the beginning of last week. British Airways announced that it had found engine problems similar to the one in the Manchester accident in four of its twelve Boeing 737s, but the airline's officials angrily denied an FAA allegation that the engine cracks were caused by operating the motors at excessively high temperatures. Still, many passengers are nervous. "People are making requests to sit near emergency exits, and there seems to be more than the normal level of cancellations," said one British Airways check-in clerk...
...series of malfunctions. Last October, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued a directive to JT8D operators around the world to check turbine parts, an order that was passed on to all carriers in the United Kingdom. Eight months later, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board contacted the FAA, citing several turbine disk failures over the past four years aboard JT8D-powered planes and again called for the engines to be inspected. The FAA asked Pratt & Whitney to conduct preliminary tests and draw up an inspection program, which the company has done...
...conclusions of a Pratt & Whitney survey of maintenance reports concerning JT8D engines, ordered last week by the FAA, are expected to be announced this week. Pratt & Whitney officials issued a statement last week warning aircraft operators to inspect all such engines, particularly the combustion chambers. At the same time, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who flew home from vacation in Austria and immediately visited the disaster site, ordered a "rigorous inquiry" into the explosion. Government investigators are predicting that the probe could take up to 18 months...