Today the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) has issued a call for witnesses regarding a serious incident relating to a Swiss A220.
On 25th July 2019, a Swiss Airbus A220-300, with registration HB-JCM and performing flight LX-348 from Geneva (Switzerland) to London Heathrow (UK), suffered an engine shut down mid flight.
During the cruising phase over East of France the left engine, a Pratt & Whitney PW1524, emitted a bang and produced streaks of flames. Immediately after, the crew shut down the engine and diverted the flight to Paris – Charles de Gaulle airport.
The aircraft landed safely 30 minutes after the incident, with no injuries reported. A post flight examination revealed that the low-pressure compressor rotor stage 1 was missing from the engine.
The BEA issued a call for witnesses regarding engine parts that may have fallen in an unoccupied wooded area near the towns of Perrigny-sur-Armancon and Cry. The four points of the search zones are shown in the next map:
The missing parts are from the low-pressure compressor and are made of titanium; each part should not exceed a length of 30cm.
In accordance with international rules, the BEA has delegated this investigation to its US counterpart, the NTSB, as representative of the engine state of design.
Feature Image by Ferenc Kobli
Should say, “the flight diverted to Paris”, not “was diverted” , as though someone else was in charge of the diversion. Only the pilots decide when and where to divert.
I worked on the interior of that aircraft ni