Pratt & Whitney training cited in 2018 United jet engine failure

A fan blade on a United jet engine that snapped off in flight in 2018, showering the plane with shrapnel, had shown signs of cracking that were missed in previous inspections. The US NTSB on Tuesday released a final report on the Boeing 777-200 engine failure, concluding Raytheon Technologies’ Pratt & Whitney division didn’t create adequate test standards. Inspections of the fan blade that failed -- using technology to spot imperfections within the titanium structure -- had shown evidence of weakening metal in 2010 and 2015, but an inspector attributed them to the way they were painted, the NTSB concluded. Because the company had designated the inspections as a new and emerging technology, it never created specific training for inspectors or certified how they performed the work, the NTSB added. The engine was a Pratt & Whitney PW4077. The incident on a flight from San Francisco to Honolulu on Feb. 13, 2018, was one of several in recent years raising safety concerns about how engines are designed. The NTSB last November called on aircraft manufacturers to strengthen the material at the front of jet powerplants after debris on a Southwest flight in 2018 blew into a window, causing the death of a woman. That engine was made by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and France’s Safran.<br/>