DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON
Rolls-Royce says it has not established the cause of the Trent 700 uncontained failure that occurred on an Edelweiss Air Airbus A330-200 during the climb out from Miami, Florida, on 6 October. It says that it was the first example of such an event for the Trent series.
The engine manufacturer completed an initial inspection of the Trent 700 engine last week at its Derby, UK, plant, and confirmed that the aircraft's wing and fuselage had been damaged by uncontained debris. R-R says it does not yet know what caused the failure.
The three-year-old A330's No 1 engine failed about 10min after the charter flight had taken off from Miami carrying 175 passengers bound for Zurich, Switzerland. It landed safely back at Miami 30min after the failure, and the passengers were disembarked normally. R-R says no debris appears to have entered the cabin and no-one was hurt. The US National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident, confirms that the fuselage damage was below deck level.
According to R-R, the failed engine entered service in 1995 - five years before the A330-200 it was powering - and had completed 15,200h in 2,350 cycles. The A330 was delivered in November 2000 on lease from CIT Aerospace.
Source: Flight International
