The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) came to the conclusion that a fan blade out (FBO) event on a United Airlines flight in 2021 was caused by incomplete inspections as well as an insufficient frequency of inspection intervals.
On February 20, 2021, a Pratt & Whitney PW4000 (PW4077) engine on the right-hand side of a United Airlines Boeing 777-200, registered as N772UA, failed shortly after takeoff as it was flying flight UAL328 from Denver International Airport (DEN) to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Honolulu, Hawaii.
The NTSB reports that the engine inlet lip skin, fan cowl support beam, and parts of the inlet, fan cowls, and thrust reversers (TR) separated from the aircraft as a result of the failure, which led to a subsequent fire.
The United Airlines crew immediately declared an emergency in response to the engine failure. The captain was the pilot flying (PF), and the first officer was the pilot monitoring (PM).
24 minutes after taking off, the Boeing 777-200 landed safely at DEN. Despite the fact that none of the 293 passengers, including the 10 crew members, were hurt, the NTSB reported that “a vehicle and a residence sustained damage when impacted by the inlet lip skin and fan cowl support beam, respectively”.
Photo Cover Credit- NTSB
