Investigating PW engine powered A320neo aircraft: DGCA

The civil aviation regulator on Tuesday said that it is investigating IndiGo and GoAir's Airbus A320 new engine option (neo) aircraft which are powered by Pratt & Whitney (PW) engines.

Recently, both the airlines have faced engine problems with their A320neo aircraft which are powered by PW PurePower Geared Turbofan.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), it has asked the two airlines to carry out one time boroscopic inspection of all the engines which have completed 1,000 hours instead of 1,500 hours and repeat inspection at every 500 hours.

DGCA has further ordered that if boroscopic inspection is unsatisfactory, engine operations should be as per the manufacturer's recommendation.

The boroscopic inspections are used for visual inspection work where the area to be inspected is inaccessible by other means.

PW is a United Technologies Corp. company which designs and manufactures aircraft engines and auxiliary power units.

Both the airlines have 21 A320neo aircraft which are powered by the PW engines, out of which 16 belong to IndiGo, while the rest are with GoAir.

On March 17, 2016 IndiGo's first Airbus A320neo, powered by PW engines arrived in India.

In 2012, IndiGo had placed one of the largest PurePower engine orders in PW's history to power its A320neo family aircraft and a long-term maintenance agreement.

On its part, Pratt & Whitney said that it is supporting GoAir and IndiGo to assess the situation and minimise any disruption.

"The issues are still under review so it would be premature to speculate on the cause," the company said in a statement.

"We are working closely with our customers and our suppliers in order to address and resolve these issues quickly."

"The P&W GTF engines are a game-changing, break-through technology with approximately [96,000] hours of revenue service operation. The GTF has been operating in the field for over one year, delivering on its performance commitments, including 99.8 per cent dispatch reliability."

--IANS

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