The US FAA said Wednesday it would order inspection of some 220 jet engines after investigators said a broken fan blade touched off an engine explosion on a Southwest flight, shattering a window and killing a passenger. The order, called an air-worthiness directive, would require an ultrasonic inspection within the next six months of the fan blades on all CFM56-7B engines that have accrued a certain number of flights. The CFM56 engine on Southwest flight 1380 blew apart over Pennsylvania on Tuesday, about 20 minutes after the Dallas-bound flight left New York’s LaGuardia Airport with 149 people on board. The explosion sent shrapnel ripping into the fuselage of the Boeing 737-700 plane and shattered a window. Bank executive Jennifer Riordan, 43, was killed when she was partially pulled through a gaping hole next to her seat in row 14 as the cabin suffered rapid decompression. Fellow passengers were able to pull her back inside but she died of her injuries later on Tuesday. Earlier on Wednesday NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt told a news conference that the incident began when one of the engine’s 24 fan blades snapped off from its hub. Sumwalt said investigators found that the blade had suffered metal fatigue at the site of the break. Sumwalt said he could not yet say if the incident, the first deadly airline accident in the US since 2009, pointed to a fleet-wide issue in the Boeing 737-700. “We want to very carefully understand what was the result of this problem, and as I mentioned a few minutes ago, I’m very concerned about this particular event,” Sumwalt said at the news conference at the Philadelphia airport. “To be able to extrapolate that to the entire fleet, I’m not willing to do that right now.” Southwest crews were inspecting similar engines the airline had in service, focusing on the 400 to 600 oldest of the CFM56 engines, made by a partnership of France’s Safran and General Electric. It was the second time that style of engine had failed on a Southwest jet in the past two years, prompting airlines around the world to step up inspections.<br/>
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Global airlines began inspecting some Boeing 737 engines on Wednesday as an investigation gathered pace into an explosion which killed a passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight in the first fatal US airline accident in almost a decade. European regulators earlier this month ordered checks following lengthy analysis of a similar non-fatal incident at Southwest two years ago but investigators warn it is too early to say whether the two problems are linked. French accident investigators said on Wednesday they were sending a team to assist the investigation led by the Washington-based National Transportation Safety Board because the engine was developed by a French-US joint venture, CFM International. France’s Safran, which co-produces the engines along with General Electric, will also provide technical support, a spokesman for the BEA air accident agency added. All recent Boeing 737s are powered by engines from CFM, a workhorse of the global airlines that has logged more than 350 million hours of safe travel but some of which were also being examined after the 2016 accident. <br/>
Tuesday's death was the first stemming from an in-flight accident on a US airliner since 2009, when a Continental Connection flight crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York, killing 49 people on board and one on the ground. The last fatal airline crash in the US was in 2013, when an Asiana Airlines jet crashed at San Francisco International Airport, killing three passengers. Southwest had never had an accident-related fatality of a passenger, although a boy died in 2006 when a Southwest jet skidded off a runway at Chicago's Midway Airport, crashed through a fence and collided with the boy's family's car. Deaths on airliners around the world have been trending down for more than a decade as planes become more technologically advanced and airlines and regulators apply lessons learned from past accidents. The Aviation Safety Network, which tracks accidents, reported recently that there were no commercial passenger jet deaths last year, although two turboprop planes were involved in fatal crashes in Russia and Angola. In 2016, a Daallo Airlines plane landed safely in Somalia after a bomb inside a laptop exploded and blew a hole in the fuselage. Only the bombing suspect was killed. Piece has other recent fatalities.<br/>
Incidents involving drones and commercial aircraft rose last year in Germany though less than expected given the popularity of the devices, air traffic authorities said Wednesday. An increase in near collisions by unmanned aircraft and commercial jets has fueled safety concerns in the aviation industry and on Tuesday the world’s airlines endorsed the development of a UN-led global registry for drones. The Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) air traffic authority said the number of incidents involving drones flying near commercial aircraft rose to 88 in 2017, up from 66 the previous year. “Until July, we had a very strong growth rate of incidents, so we originally thought that the 66 incidents from 2016 would be doubled, but they didn’t,” DFS Chief Executive Klaus-Dieter Scheurle told a news conference on Wednesday. So far this year, 14 incidents have been reported. He said that work by the DFS to educate the public on the risks involved with flying drones close to commercial air traffic was paying off. A free app launched by the DFS to show the rules has had 35,000 active users since July.<br/>
An Indian push to connect more cities via airports as an expanding middle class increasingly takes to the skies is set to help propel the country’s demand for jet fuel to record highs this year. That rapid growth in appetite for aviation fuel means the country’s refiners are far less likely to send cargoes abroad, tightening markets from Asia to Europe. Years of breakneck economic expansion have helped India become the world’s fastest growing major domestic aviation market, according to the International Air Transport Association. That has been underpinned by ambitious government plans to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure, including a push to build airports and offer airlines incentives to fly to smaller cities. “The country’s air transport sector has huge potential to grow in the long-term given its large geographical expanse and growing consumer affluence,” said Sri Paravaikkarasu, a Singapore-based analyst at energy consultancy FGE.<br/>Average monthly demand for jet fuel could break through 700,000 tonnes this year, up from 2017’s record 623,000 tonnes and from 566,000 tonnes in 2016, several industry analysts estimated. That would be an annual growth rate of around 12%, comparable to what China achieved during its main boom years in the early 2000s.<br/>
As planemakers focus on delivering record jetliner backlogs at the expense of designing new models, airlines are keener than ever to secure an edge over rivals with the latest onboard upgrades and gizmos. That might mean snazzy new business seats each costing more than a family car, or cheap and cheerful innovations aimed at making 10 hours in coach just a little more bearable. Story covers highlights from the 2018 Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg -- the industry’s biggest event devoted solely to the inside of the aircraft.<br/>