Three US Airways Boeing 767s had to be pulled from service last week, after the carrier’s engineers discovered that recently-installed fuse pins in the engine pylons may have been too strong to allow the engine to safely break away during an emergency.
The discovery, made on May 24 – just before the USA’s Memorial Day weekend – came as a result of reviewing an airworthiness directive “that had conflicting statements from a Boeing service bulletin”, US Airways revealed in its employee newsletter dated yesterday.
Once Boeing clarified it, said US Airways, “we decided the airlines needed to have the pins replaced."
The carrier’s maintenance division developed a repair plan, while its operational control center, reservations and customer service representatives sought replacement aircraft, moved aircraft around the system, rescheduled crews and re-accommodated hundreds of passengers from the 767s.
The aircraft were scheduled to fly to Munich, Frankfurt and Barcelona during Memorial Day weekend. Despite delays of up to six hours, US Airways said it managed to get customers to their international destinations.
Additionally, the repairs came in a day earlier than estimated, on May 25, so the aircraft could be returned to service on May 26.
“Everyone involved made good decisions, quickly, that saved the day,” said US Airways senior VP, technical operations Hal Heule.
“Within one to two hours of being notified of the problem, people stepped up, made decisions, and got us through. This was a great example of a lot of people working together to overcome a problem and help our customers.”
Source: FlightGlobal.com
