Airlines check some Boeing 737 engines after fatal Southwest accident

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/>