Airbus grounds jets for checks

Swissair has a fleet of 15 Airbus A330s

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- Swissair and Belgian affiliate Sabena have grounded some of their Airbus A330 aircraft after the manufacturer warned of a fault with their Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines.

U.S. Airways was on Friday inspecting its planes for the fault which was described as cracks in mounting nuts that secure the engines to the wing.

The French-based Airbus Industrie said 82 of the 171 A330 planes in operation around the world were fitted with P&W engines, but not all would be affected by the problem.

A330s powered by other engine makes were not involved, it added in a statement.

In 1997, other A330s had to be grounded because of a fault with their Rolls-Royce engines.

Swissair and Sabena said they had grounded 17 planes between them due to the inspection request.

"During a planned engine replacement on a P&W powered A330, cracks were discovered on some nuts of bolts installed on the aft mount of the Pratt & Whitney engine," Airbus said in a statement on Friday.

It added that the failure of one nut in no way affected the engine's safe attachment to the pylon. The mounting had four bolts.

"Consequently safety was in no way and at no time compromised," Airbus said. Spares were readily available worldwide.

P&W company officials said the problem was not far-reaching.

"We have urged all A330 operators to do an immediate inspection to see if they have a problem and to replace those mounting nuts if required," Mark Sullivan, a spokesman for the company, said.

"We don't believe it's a widespread problem, but we're very cautious in these things."

The news first broke when Swissair, a unit of Switzerland's SAirGroup, announced late on Friday it had cancelled several long-haul flights after French authorities grounded various production series of the Airbus A330 plane powered by P&W engines.

Swissair has a fleet of 15 Airbus A330s and suspended service with 11 of them. The remaining four were not affected.

In Brussels, Sabena grounded six of its 10 A330s following the Airbus request. A seventh had already been given a clean bill of health.

Sabena's three other A330s are powered by other engines.

"We have begun the inspections, and we expect to have them completed this afternoon, with no impact on our operations," Rick Weintraub, a spokesman for Arlington, Virginia-based US Airways, said.

Other users of the A330 with P&W PW4000 engines include Korean Air, Malaysian Airlines, Thai Airways, and another Swissair affiliate, Germany's LTU .

Based in Toulouse, France, Airbus Industrie is a consortium of European aerospace group EADS and BAE Systems.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Airbus Industrie
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Swissair
Sabena
US Airways
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