U.S. NTSB investigators are on scene examining damage to the engine of the Southwest Airlines plane in this image released from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., April 17, 2018.

Southwest Airlines has sped up a sweeping inspection of its engines following a midair failure last week that killed a passenger, the airline's first fatal accident in its almost five decades of flying. But the engine parts that have been under the most scrutiny may not have been the only factor in the accident, a company executive said Thursday.

One of the fan blades on the Boeing 737-700 broke off during the New York-to-Dallas flight on April 17. After the blade broke off, shrapnel flew, puncturing the fuselage. A passenger, bank executive Jennifer Riordan, was partially sucked through a blown-out window, and died. But the engine also lost part of its cowling, which surrounds the engine's fan.

"Now, we know that the engine inlet cowling suffered significant damage and lost pieces of that cowling may be responsible for the damage to the fuselage, the wing and the stabilizer," said Southwest COO Mike Van de Ven on a call after posting earnings on Thursday. "And the loss of a single blade inside the engine just shouldn't have caused such dramatic impact."</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jet engine manufacturer CFM International Inc said on Thursday airlines have inspected more than half of nearly 700 CFM engines subject to an emergency order issued late Friday by U.S. and European regulators.

The inspections cover engines like the one involved in a fatal Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) engine blowout last week. The directives for inspections by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency suggested rising concerns about CFM56-7B engines, built by the joint venture of General Electric Co (GE.N) and France’s Safran SA (SAF.PA). The same type of engine had a similar failure in 2016.

Ultrasonic inspections on fan blades that have been used in more than 30,000 cycles, or in service for about 20 years, will be required by May 10, the agencies said. A cycle includes one take-off and landing — and 150 had already been inspected prior to Friday’s order.

Cincinnati, Ohio-based CFM International said airline operators have completed more than 60 percent of mandated ultrasonic inspections on CFM56-7B engines with more than 30,000 cycles.

As soon as next week, the FAA was expected to finalize a separate directive on CFM56-7B engines it had proposed in August covering a different set of engines, two officials briefed on the matter said.

The engine explosion on Southwest Airlines flight 1380 in Pennsylvania was caused by a fan blade that broke off, the FAA said. The blast shattered a window, killing a passenger, the first U.S. passenger airline fatality since 2009.

The CFM56-7B engine powers the Boeing Next-Generation 737. Approximately 14,000 CFM56-7B engines are operated by 60 companies worldwide.

CFM said GE and Safran Aircraft Engines are supporting airlines with a team of 500 experts worldwide to complete the inspections quickly and help to minimize operational disruption. Southwest has said it is cancelling some flights as a result of inspections.

CFM also recommends completing inspections of fan blades with more than 20,000 cycles by the end of August, and inspections to all other fan blades by the time they reach 20,000 cycles. After first inspection, operators are recommended to repeat the inspection every 3,000 cycles, typically about two years in airline service. Those inspections for fan blades with 20,000 cycles will affect an additional 2,500 engines by August.

The engine that blew apart on last week’s Southwest flight would have been affected by Friday’s inspection order, since the company said it had 40,000 cycles.</s>Aero-engine maker CFM International said airlines are “aggressively responding” to safety regulator directives to inspect CFM56-7B engines, the type that exploded on a Southwest Airlines aircraft last week, causing one fatality.

Last Friday’s emergency airworthiness directives from the US Federal Aviation Administration and European Aviation Safety Agency require ultrasonic inspections on CFM56-7B engine blades with more than 30,000 cycles since new. A cycle comprises start up, take-off, landing and shut down.

CFM said more than 60 percent of the 680 engines worldwide that are subject to the directives have been inspected. The remaining inspections must be completed by May 10.

The company is also recommending that operators inspect fan blades with more than 20,000 cycles by the end of August, and inspections of all other fan blades should be carried out when they reach 20,000 cycles.

CFM says there are around 14,000 CFM56-7B engines in operation around the world.

Southwest Airlines flight WN1380, a Boeing 737-700 carrying 143 passengers and five crew, was on a flight from New York’s La Guardia airport to Dallas Love Field when the left engine exploded, sending parts into the aircraft, causing cabin depressurisation.

One passenger died after she was partially sucked out of the cabin as it depressurised. Passengers were able to grab the woman and pull her back into the cabin, but she died of her injuries.</s>(Reuters) - Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) on Thursday warned that fallout from a fatal mid-air explosion last week will weigh on second-quarter bookings, as investigators continued to probe the events that led to the first passenger death in the airline’s history.

Second-quarter unit revenue will drop by 1 percent to 3 percent, the carrier said in its quarterly earnings report, with 1 to 2 percentage points attributed to a decrease in bookings following the engine explosion.

Shares of the Dallas-based carrier fell 4 percent in premarket trading, adding to the 17.8 percent year-to-date decline.

Southwest has been under intense scrutiny in the days since an engine on one of its Boeing 737 jets blew apart during a flight last Tuesday, killing one of 149 people aboard and raising concerns about the safety of similar engines.

“It remains a somber time for the Southwest Family following the Flight 1380 accident,” Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said in a statement. “We continue to cooperate with the National Transportation Safety Board’s thorough investigation to understand the cause of the accident.”

The incident marked the first fatality on a U.S. commercial passenger airline since 2009, and the first such passenger death in Southwest’s 51-year history.

Over the next month it will begin inspecting other CFM56-7B engines, the one involved in last week’s accident, Southwest has said. The engine is manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric and France’s Safran.

It was not immediately known how much Southwest will record in expenses related to the engine blowout over the next several months.

The carrier included preliminary estimate in its second-quarter unit cost outlook of an increase of 1 percent to 2 percent, also including some pressure from employee wage and benefit increases.

Southwest has sent $5,000 checks to passengers of the April 17 flight and canceled dozens of other flights in an effort to voluntarily ramp up engine inspections.

The airline has declined to answer questions about the CFM56-7B inspection program, including how many engines were inspected prior to the accident and if the engine that failed had been inspected.

A Southwest flight in August 2016 with the same type of CFM56-7B engine made an emergency landing in Pensacola, Florida, after a fan blade separated and debris ripped a hole above the left wing.

After the incident, European regulators gave airlines nine months to check the engines. U.S. regulators were still were considering what to do after proposing some checks.</s>Emergency personnel monitor the damaged engine of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, which diverted to Philadelphia International Airport after the engine blew apart and shattered a window, killing one passenger, on a runway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 17, 2018. Photo by Reuters/Mark Makela

A lawsuit against Southwest Airlines Co has been filed by a passenger who was flying on last week’s flight 1380, in which an engine exploded and one person was killed.

The lawsuit claims that since the accident, the passenger, Lilia Chavez, has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and other personal injuries.

The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Dallas-based Southwest has been under intense scrutiny in the days since a CFM56-7B engine on one of its Boeing 737-700 jets blew apart during an April 17 flight, shattering a plane window and flinging shrapnel.

Passenger Jennifer Riordan, one of 149 people aboard, was killed. The incident has raised concerns about the safety of similar engines.

Regulators at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating.

“Our focus remains on working with the NTSB to support their investigation,” Southwest said on Friday. “We can’t comment on any pending litigation. The safety and security of our employees and customers is our highest priority at all times.”

Also named in the Thursday suit are France’s Safran S.A., General Electric Aviation and CFM International, the manufacturers behind the engine that broke apart. CFM is a transatlantic joint-venture co-owned by GE and Safran.

The suit claims that Southwest and the engine makers had “placed profits and business” over passenger safety and continued to operate the engine “even when there was confirmation that an unsafe condition existed.”

A Southwest flight in August 2016 with the same type of CFM56-7B engine made an emergency landing in Pensacola, Florida, after a fan blade separated and debris ripped a hole above the left wing.

After the incident, European regulators gave airlines nine months to check the engines. U.S. regulators were still were considering what to do after proposing some checks.

“Despite knowing of the dangerous condition of the subject aircraft’s engine, the defendants risked the lives of more than a hundred innocent passengers,” including Chavez, the filing reads.

A representative for GE did not return a request for comment. Safran could not immediately be reached.

The incident marked the first fatality on a U.S. commercial passenger airline since 2009.

Southwest shares closed up 0.4 percent. They have lost 18.2 percent year to date.</s>NTSB investigators check the damage to the engine on the plane of Southwest Flight 1380, on April 17, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Southwest Airlines said it hasn’t found any additional evidence of the metal fatigue on jet engine fan blades that led to last week’s fatal accident after inspecting 8,500 of the components.

“With the inspections we have stepped up since last week, we have had no findings at this point, which is obviously what we would expect,” Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said in a quarterly earnings call with analysts on Thursday.

Responding to last week’s fatal accident on Southwest Flight 1380, the airline has been racing to inspect fan blades on the engine model that failed. It has about 35,500 fan blades in its fleet, 17,000 of which were inspected before the accident. Since speeding up checks after an emergency inspection order last week, the company has about 10,000 more to look at, according to Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven.

The inspections of one of the most common jet engines in the world were carried out under an emergency directive issued Friday by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in the wake of last week’s fatal accident in which a fan blade cracked and sent metal fragments flying, triggering an explosive decompression on the plane. A New Mexico woman was partially sucked through a window and died.

Inspections were originally triggered by a similar 2016 engine failure on a Southwest plane that also caused it to lose pressure, but no one was injured. Southwest said it found one cracked blade last year and removed it.

The engine is the CFM56-7B made by CFM International Inc., a partnership between General Electric Co. and France’s Safran SA.

Southwest expects to have inspected all its CFM56-7B engines, not just those covered under the emergency order, within 30 days.

CFM issued a release Thursday saying that 60 percent of the approximately 680 engines covered under the order issued by FAA and other nations’ aviation regulators had been inspected.</s>Southwest Airlines has sped up a sweeping inspection of its engines following a mid-air failure last week that killed a passenger, the airline's first fatal accident in its almost five decades of flying. But the engine parts that have been under the most scrutiny may not have been the only factor in the accident, a company executive said Thursday.

One of the fan blades on the Boeing 737-700 broke off during the New York-to-Dallas flight on April 17. After the blade broke off, shrapnel flew, puncturing the fuselage. A passenger, bank executive Jennifer Riordan, was partially sucked through a blown-out window, and died. But the engine also lost part of its cowling, which surrounds the engine's fan.

"Now, we know that the engine inlet cowling suffered significant damage and lost pieces of that cowling may be responsible for the damage to the fuselage, the wing and the stabilizer," said Southwest COO Mike Van de Ven on a call after posting earnings on Thursday. "And the loss of a single blade inside the engine just shouldn't have caused such dramatic impact."

"What we are talking about is whether or not there are opportunities in the inlet cowling to improve durability so that it can minimize the kind of energy that comes out with this fan-blade release," he said.

The airline, which carries more passengers within the U.S. than any other airline, had inspected about 17,000 of the more than 35,000 fan blades on its engines before last week's accident, Van de Ven said.

One out of those had at least one crack in it, and had been replaced, the company said.

The airline accelerated its blade tests following last week's engine failure and expects to complete the task next month. It said no other cracks were found in blades since it accelerated those tests last week.

The engine's manufacturer, CFM International, on Friday called for more stringent tests of this type of engine, the CFM56-7B, one of the world's most commonly used. CNBC had reported the manufacturer was planning to issue such a recommendation before the April 17 failure. Airline regulators in the U.S. and Europe then mandated the stepped-up checks.</s>(Reuters) - Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) on Thursday warned that fallout from a fatal mid-air explosion last week will weigh on second-quarter bookings, as investigators continued to probe the events that led to the first passenger death in the airline’s history.

Second-quarter unit revenue will drop by 1 percent to 3 percent, the carrier said in its quarterly earnings report, with 1 to 2 percentage points attributed to a decrease in bookings following the engine explosion.

Shares of the Dallas-based carrier fell nearly 3 percent to $52.29, adding to the 20 percent year-to-date decline.

Southwest posted first-quarter profit of $438 million, excluding special items, up from $372 million a year earlier. It earned 75 cents per share, topping the Wall Street consensus projection of 74 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Unit costs rose modestly by 0.1 percent year over year. In the current quarter, Southwest expects a 1 percent to 2 percent increase in unit costs, excluding fuel and some items.

Southwest has been under intense scrutiny in the days since an engine on one of its Boeing 737 jets blew apart during a flight last Tuesday, killing one of 149 people aboard and raising concerns about the safety of similar engines.

“It remains a somber time for the Southwest Family following the Flight 1380 accident,” Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said in a statement. “We continue to cooperate with the National Transportation Safety Board’s thorough investigation to understand the cause of the accident.”

The incident marked the first fatality on a U.S. commercial passenger airline since 2009, and the first such passenger death in Southwest’s 51-year history.

Over the next month it will begin inspecting other CFM56-7B engines, the one involved in last week’s accident, Southwest has said. The engine is manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric and France’s Safran.

It was not immediately known how much Southwest will record in expenses related to the engine blowout over the next several months.

The carrier included preliminary estimate in its second-quarter unit cost outlook of an increase of 1 percent to 2 percent, also including some pressure from employee wage and benefit increases.

Southwest has sent $5,000 checks to passengers of the April 17 flight and canceled dozens of other flights in an effort to voluntarily ramp up engine inspections.

As of Thursday, Southwest CEO Kelly said in an interview with CNBC, the airline had inspected about 80 percent of its fleet. Kelly said the airline plans to conclude inspections by the end of May.

The airline has declined to say how many CFM56-7B engines were inspected prior to the accident and if the engine that failed has been inspected.

A Southwest flight in August 2016 with the same type of CFM56-7B engine made an emergency landing in Pensacola, Florida, after a fan blade separated and debris ripped a hole above the left wing.

After the incident, European regulators gave airlines nine months to check the engines. U.S. regulators were still were considering what to do after proposing some checks.</s>A spokesman for FlightAware told NBC News that Southwest typically averages a few dozen cancellations on a normal day — making 128 above the average. There were no major weather events across the country on Monday morning apart from some heavy rains over the Southeast.

The emergency inspections come after passenger Jennifer Riordan died aboard a flight last Tuesday when she was partially sucked out of the plane following an engine explosion that shattered a window. The flight from New York was forced to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

Southwest said after the accident that all of the CFM56-7B engines on its Boeing 737 fleet will be reviewed within 30 days.

“When we announced the accelerated engine fan blade inspection program on Tuesday night, we said there would be some impact on our operation,” the airline said in its Sunday statement. “We have minimized flight disruptions this past week through actions such as proactive aircraft routings to cover open trips, performing inspections overnight, and utilizing spare aircraft, when available.”

The company said the cancellations were not because of a Friday directive by the Federal Aviation Administration and European airline regulators ordering emergency inspections for fan blades on certain CFM56-7B engines within 20 days for all airlines.

The “emergency airworthiness directive” affects 352 engines in the U.S. and 681 engines worldwide, according to the FAA.

“The cancellations are a result of our voluntary, accelerated engine fan blade inspection program announced on Tuesday night,” the airline said.</s>Last week, Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 operated by Boeing B737-700 aircraft suffered engine failure, which led to eventual death of one passenger.

One of the two engines of the aircraft was damaged airborne, while traveling from New York to Dallas with 144 passengers and five crew onboard.

The pilot of the flight declared emergency landing and took the airplane to rapid descent and landed successfully in Philadelphia.

 According to CNN, as passengers prayed and pondered their last words to loved ones, the pilot in command of the flight, Captain Tammie Jo Shults and First Officer Darren Ellisor had the duty of landing the big injured aircraft safely.

One of the passengers, Jennifer Riordan who was almost sucked out of the airplane after she was fatally injured was pulled back by passengers into the plane but she died in the hospital after the aircraft landed safely. It was the first fatal accident involving a US-based passenger airline since 2009, NTSB said.

After the accident, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) started investigation into the aircraft engine. According to reports, in preliminary briefings, NTSB Chairman, Robert Sumwalt said that inspection of the damaged engine revealed that one of the titanium blades on the big fan had broken off at the root, and that there was evidence of metal fatigue at the site where it broke. He said metal fatigue is a major problem.

Investigations also suggested that the engine, which was built by CPM, might have had that challenge because “the shrapnel damage to the plane’s fuselage and photos of the damage suggest this was a dangerous “uncontained engine failure.” Such incidents occur about three or four times a year worldwide, according to the NTSB.

After the accident, signals were sent all over the world for the inspection of the engine type, which is CFM 56-7B, which is fitted in most of Boeing B737-700 New Generation aircraft series.

On Monday, FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued emergency airworthiness directives requiring operators to inspect fan blades on older CFM56-7B engines within 20 days, airwise.com reported.

The directives applied to CFM International engines of the type that was fitted to the Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700.

 Initial NTSB inspections of the Southwest engine showed a fan blade had detached and there was evidence of metal fatigue in the fractured blade.

Engines with over 30,000 total cycles must complete the inspections within 20 days, the FAA said. The CFM engines subject to the emergency directives number 681 worldwide and 352 in the US.

 In Nigeria, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) received FAA directive to review the aircraft the same type of aircraft engines fitted on aircraft being operated in Nigeria.

The Director General of NCAA, Captain Muhtar Usman told THISDAY that the agency was reviewing the aircraft being operated by Nigerian airlines to identify those that may have the engine type.

THISDAY investigations disclosed that Arik Air is the only airline that has Boeing B737-700 and has seven of the aircraft type in its fleet. But inside sources revealed that the engines are relatively newer than the ones being investigated and they neither were near 20 years old nor recorded 30,000 total cycles.

Captain Usman said after the review, if any aircraft engine was affected the NCAA would take appropriate action, dismissing insinuations that some of the aircraft in Air Peace fleet may also have such engine types.

 Spokesman of Air Peace, Chris Iwarah said the airline has Boeing 737-300 and 737-500 aircraft, “which had been credited with perfect engine performance”, in its fleet.

The B737-300 and B737-500 aircraft are fitted with a CFM56-3C engine,” he said.

 The airline said besides contracting one of the best aircraft maintenance companies in the world, BCT Aviation, to do routine maintenance of its fleet on ground its base in Lagos, it was spending huge foreign exchange to maintain its aircraft in some of the best facilities in the world to ensure that the safety of the flying public was not compromised.

“The FAA directive to airlines which operate aircraft with the same engine with the US carrier to perform ultrasonic inspection on the engines installed on NG B737-700 does not extend to engines installed on the classic aircraft, which we have in our fleet. Besides, our aircraft are maintained in accordance with the approved maintenance programme and manufacturer maintenance document,” Air Peace said.

 NTSB said there is need to check the engine type because similar incident happened in 2016, although there was no loss of lives, but the plane made an emergency landing in Pensacola, Florida. The FAA responded 10 months later with a recommendation that airlines use ultrasound to inspect their engine fan blades. Though most airlines have complied with that counsel, the agency thought the matter significantly urgent that it has begun the laborious federal process to mandate that every airline carry out the inspections.

 By the time FAA concludes its findings on the engine type, it may likely direct that such engines should be suspended from use and this would cost airlines huge resources replacing the engines. Meanwhile, southwest Airlines flights are disrupted due to the ongoing findings.
Jet engine manufacturer CFM International calls for heightened checks of its CFM56-7B after a Boeing 737 passenger died in an accident this month. The CFM56-7B is one of the most commonly used engines worldwide.