There are 400-500 Rolls Royce Trent 1000 jet aircraft engines in the world. It seems that some bolted onto the wings of Boeing 787 aircraft are having problems, wearing-out earlier than anticipated. It’s rumoured that the problem is a design issue, (tip degradation), and cycling the engines through Rolls-Royce’s repair facility will take a lot of time.

Air New Zealand had two incidents in the last few days. NZ99 was bound for Tokyo, had an engine shut down, and immediately returned to Auckland. The next evening the crew of NZ30 shut an engine down on departure for Buenos Aires.

Airline Secrets Exposed (a Facebook Page which closely-follows the industry here), reported that the Boeing 787-900 suffered severe vibrations before returning to Auckland without dumping fuel. Both aircraft are less than four years old.

Airline Secrets Exposed says:

“Last year corrosion and cracking problems were identified in Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines on Japanese airline ANA Dreamliners and the engine maker undertook to replace them around the world. Small turbine blades at the back of the engines are being replaced. Rolls-Royce previously advised and that it does not have enough spare engines available while that work is undertaken.”

The same day that Air New Zealand’s operations staff were discovering that their flights running-up to Christmas may be in jeopardy; Virgin Atlantic's VS207, enroute from Hong Kong to Heathrow, turned-around over Mongolia and returned to Hong Kong. After 9 hours 15 minutes it landed back at the origin airport. The flight was cancelled and the aircraft remains on the ground.

Virgin's 787 fleet is still to fully undergo the rectifications, and the airline is leasing Airbus A330s to fly on some routes whilst their ‘planes are grounded. They are also getting their Airbus A340s out of mothballs to cover the flying.

Reuters reported (here) that British Airways said it was carrying out precautionary inspections on its Trent 1000 engines. In a statement BA said:

“To facilitate the engine inspections we have had to make some minor schedule adjustments and are rebooking customer onto alternative services.”

There are at least three Trent 1000-powered 787s grounded at Heathrow.

These days, many airlines lease the engines on a ‘power-by-the-hour’ basis, leaving the supply and maintenance to Rolls-Royce. So, for many airlines, it is up to Rolls to fix the problem.

Virgin Atlantic’s partner, Delta, is stepping-in to provide assistance, covering many flights, but the issue is expected to take months to resolve.

The Boeing 787 came ‘out of the box’ with three hours ETOPS approval when it was launched, and did not have to spend years proving reliability. In May 2014 it was extended to 330 minutes.

This means the two-engined aircraft could fly to a point, have a major failure such as an engine failure, or cargo fire, then safely fly five and a half hours to a suitable airport. Whilst this appeases accountants and risk managers, pilots and passengers often hold differing views.

Flying over the Indian, Atlantic, Southern or Pacific Oceans with one engine shutdown, on a two-engined airliner, may not be comforting —if the other engine is the same age as the failed-engine.



8th Dec 2017
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Tags: RollS Royce