Federal investigators say a fatigue crack in the left engine compressor on a BA jet was to blame for an aborted takeoff and fire at a Las Vegas airport in 2015. One flight attendant was seriously injured in the Sept. 8, 2015, incident at McCarran International Airport. All 157 passengers and 13 crew members on board the Boeing 777-236ER jet, which was bound for London, were able to evacuate. The plane was substantially damaged by fire. In a report released Wednesday, the NTSB said it couldn't determine the cause of the crack in its investigation. It said the crack in one of the compressor's disks likely was visible during two separate maintenance procedures in 2008 and 2014, but went undetected because inspecting the disks wasn't required. The engine's maker, GE, has since established procedures designed to catch cracks in the disk web. The NTSB said the captain aborted the takeoff just two seconds after the left engine failed and brought the plane to a halt within 13 seconds. But it also blamed the captain for the chaotic evacuation that followed. After a fire alarm sounded, the captain called for an engine fire checklist, but it took him 22 seconds to follow the checklist's order to close a valve that shuts off fuel to the engine. During that time, Boeing estimated that 97 gallons of fuel spilled on the runway, helping to feed the fire. The report also found that the captain called for an evacuation before completing an evacuation checklist. Story has more details.<br/>
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American Airlines says a regional affiliate should run close to a normal operation Thursday after canceling 2,750 flights in the past week because of a computer problem. A spokeswoman said PSA Airlines stabilised its computer systems but faced delays getting planes and crews back in place. PSA cancelled about 300 flights Wednesday. Based in Dayton, Ohio, PSA is owned by American and operates many American Eagle regional flights, especially in Charlotte, North Carolina. Cody said American has been rebooking stranded passengers on American and other airlines since disruptions started June 14. She said there was a hardware problem in computers used to run crew-scheduling applications.<br/>
Cathay Pacific Airways is looking to control its jet fuel costs with new long-range planes that can take passengers further while using 20% less fuel than its current Boeing 777 aircraft, as oil prices see-saw from geopolitical instability and trade war fears. On Wednesday, its latest purchase, the technologically advanced, long-haul Airbus A350-1000, landed in Hong Kong, decorated in the airline’s green and white livery, after a 12-hour journey from the planemaker’s headquarters in Toulouse, France. Hong Kong’s flag carrier is only the second airline to fly the long-range jet, after Qatar Airways. By 2021, it will have 20 of the A350’s larger twin-aisle, twin-engined planes in its fleet. This will add to the current 22 smaller A350-900s it has, with six more of the planes to be delivered over the next two years.<br/>
Malaysia Airlines has dropped plans to retrofit its six Airbus A380s to a high-density seat configuration for pilgrimage flights. The carrier says the decision to stick to the current configuration comes as it believes that it represents "a product that is superior to other Umrah and Hajj operators". Each of the widebody aircraft was slated to have around 700 all-economy seats, an increase of 204 from its current 496. "The decision to currently stick to the configuration follows a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis coupled with a deeper understanding of our core customer segment on Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages, that tend to be more senior and elderly," the carrier said. The carrier will also continue to deploy the A380s during peak periods in this network. As such it says that having multiple seat configurations "may not be optimal".<br/>