European aviation regulators have expanded the number of Rolls-Royce Trent engines that might be impacted by a fuel hose issue, as per an updated safety directive released on 19 September following an engine fire on a Cathay Pacific Airbus A350-1000 earlier this month.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has pinpointed a specific cleaning process during engine refurbishment as a probable cause of the damage to the manifold fuel hose on the Trent XWB-97 engine that was on the Cathay aircraft.
The incident took place on 2 September when the Cathay A350 (B-LXI), carrying 332 passengers and 16 crew members on flight CX383 from Hong Kong to Zurich, experienced a fire in its number 2 engine shortly after take-off. The fire was extinguished after 59 seconds, and the plane returned to Hong Kong 1 hour and 15 minutes after takeoff.
A preliminary report by Hong Kong’s Air Accident Investigation Authority, released shortly before the EASA directive, indicated that a ruptured fuel manifold hose was likely the cause of the fire. Further examination of the engine post-incident revealed issues with five secondary hoses.
The updated directive issued by EASA supersedes a previous order for a one-time inspection of the fuel manifold hoses for A350-1000 operators. It has been found that a specific cleaning process during engine refurbishment could lead to fuel hose degradation.
The directive now includes more Trent engine variants that might be affected, such as the Trent XWB-84 used on the A350-900. Additionally, the lower-thrust Trent XWB-75 and XWB-79 variants, initially designed for the A350-800 but currently in operation on a few -900s, have also been included.
The cleaning process linked to the issue has been stopped by maintenance, repair, and overhaul organizations, and Rolls-Royce has updated its service bulletin to require repeat inspections for potentially affected engines.
EASA has mandated inspections within 30 days for Trent XWB-75, XWB-79, and XWB-84 engines, with subsequent checks needed at intervals not exceeding 2,000 hours. Older XWB-97 engines meeting specific criteria are to be inspected within three days, while younger engines have a timeframe ranging from seven to 30 days for inspection.