Southwest: Other carriers finding cracked fan blades

By DAVID KOENIG

AP Airlines Writer

DALLAS

A small number of fan blades with cracks like those blamed for a fatal accident on Southwest Airlines have been found at other airlines, and the engine maker is considering recommending more frequent inspections.

A spokesman for General Electric, one of two companies that owns the engine manufacturer, said Friday that “a handful” of problematic fan blades have been removed during stepped-up inspections that followed the Southwest accident in April.

Southwest’s chief operating officer, Mike Van de Ven, said he knows of “maybe four or five” reports of cracked fan blades at other carriers. Neither Van de Ven nor GE identified the airlines.

A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board declined to comment on the statements by Southwest and GE.

The blades are being analyzed as part of the NTSB’s investigation of the accident in which a woman died after being pushed partly out of a broken window as her plane cruised 32,000 feet above the ground. The safety board has scheduled a hearing on the accident for Nov. 14.

The NTSB said earlier this week that the hearing will examine fan blade design and inspections. The board will also look at measures to prevent broken parts from becoming deadly shrapnel, as happened on the Southwest flight.

That engine was made by CFM International, a joint venture of GE and France’s Safran SA. GE spokesman Rick Kennedy said about 150,000 blades were inspected after the Southwest accident.

Kennedy said that in the 21 years since the CFM56-7B engine went into service there have been only two incidents in which a fan blade broke.