New engine for Delta 767
Stabroek News
September 25, 2002

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The Boeing 767 Delta Airlines aircraft, which was forced to land at Timehri early Sunday morning is almost repaired and is expected to depart Guyana this morning.

Two engineers from Delta Airlines arrived in Guyana on Sunday night and according to a source they have replaced the defective engine.

The plane, which was at the time transporting 12 crew members and 138 passengers, made an emergency landing after its right side engine caught fire.

A source told Stabroek News yesterday that the defective engine was replaced and after the plane does a test run it is expected to depart. Tests will later be done on the engine in the US to determine what could have caused it to catch fire. Boeing 767 aircraft are powered by two CF6-80 engines developed by General Electric.

Last year, some of the engines built before 1995 came in for increased scrutiny by GE and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after an engine failure on a CF6-80C2-powered Boeing 767 preparing for takeoff from Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Varig Brasil jet was taxiing down the runway when the crew heard a loud bang and stopped the jet on the runway. Four passengers were hurt during the evacuation. The FAA ordered more frequent inspections of the engines after hair-thin cracks were discovered in part of the engine compressor's spool.

The structure is about the size of a beer keg, and holds compressor blades, which squeeze the air used to drive the engine. The FAA directive involved about 1,500 CF6 engines, 600 of which were to be inspected within a year because of their age. To facilitate those inspections, GE developed an FAA-approved probe that allows GE and the airlines to inspect the engines without taking them completely apart.

The FAA order also called for all pre-1995 compressor spools to be replaced over the next 15 years with a newer design. GE said it is working with the airlines to replace all the compressor spools with the new design within five years.