From AOPA News website
NEWS HEADLINE - Tuesday 20 August 2002
LYCOMING POWERED AIRCRAFT GROUNDED
CASA today grounded ground about 40 aircraft with turbocharged piston engines identical to those that powered the Piper Chieftain involved in the Whyalla Airlines tragedy two years ago.
CASA said Piper Chieftians, Navajos, Satarogas, Malibu-Mirages and Cessna 206s were potentially affected.
CASA gave operators five hours to return the aircraft to their bases by tomorrow for engine strip downs.
The action follows the international recall at the weekend of 900 engines and 1900 crankshafts by Textron Lycoming of the TIO-540 engines after widespread crankshaft failures in Australia and the US.
The engines were used in Whyalla Airlines' VH-MZK, which crashed into Spencer Gulf on May 31, 2000, killing all eight people aboard. The two main operators of Piper Chieftains in South Australia - Emu Airways and Airlines of South Australia - said they were not affected because their engines had been overhauled in Australia.
Most of the engines and crankshafts detailed on a 16-page mandatory service bulletin issued by Textron Lycoming at the weekend were manufactured and installed at its US factories.
The left engine of Whyalla Airlines VH-MZK had flown only 270 hours after being shipped from the US to replace another Textron Lycoming engine which exploded on a flight from Cleve to Adelaide.
There have been a further 13 failures of Lycoming TIO-540 engines since the Whyalla Airlines accident, with pilots in Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory making emergency landings.
"Lycoming has received several field reports of broken crankshafts in six-cylinder turbocharged engines rated at 300 horsepower or higher," Textron said in a service bulletin.
"The problem is related to the material used in these crankshafts." Textron Lycoming said the engines had to be removed from aircraft, dissembled and their crankshafts replaced.
It warned aviation operators against using existing crankshafts from other engines as these also could be defective.
The latest recall by the company follows the recall in February of 400 TIO-540 engines because of crankshaft failures.
The latest recall is expected to ground almost 3000 aircraft across the world. Textron Lycoming issued a media release in April saying it had been forced to put on an extra assembly line to cope with the repair of the 400 engines initially identified with defective crankshafts.
The company has offered to pay the full costs of grounding the aircraft and overhauling their engines. The latest recall comes as a coronial inquest continues to examine the Whyalla Airlines loss. Textron Lycoming has declined to comment publicly or to give evidence at the inquest because of several court cases begun by families of the Whyalla Airlines victims.
CASA revoked Airworthiness Directive AD/LYC/107 for Lycoming TIO and LTIO-540 engines rated at 300 horsepower or greater covered by the Textron mandatory service bulletin showing affected serial numbers. The FAA states that affected crankshafts must be replaced before further flight with a crankshaft that is not listed by serial number on a list of about 1800 suspect crankshafts. Reports said some crankshafts installed under an AD issued in February of this year and associated with Lycoming's mandatory Service Bulletin No. 550, might also be faulty and have to go back.
The new AD was issued after the fatal crash of a Piper Malibu Mirage in Michigan earlier this month, plus reports of 17 crankshaft failures. The FAA said variations in the heat treatment process results in metallurgical deficiencies that cause the cranks to fail.
Reports quoted a Textron spokeswoman saying that the recall does not just apply to new engines purchased in the past three years. Faulty cranks might also have been installed in rebuilds during that period. The FAA is estimating it will take up to eight months to replace all the crankshafts. Lycoming will cover the cost of removal, shipping, repair and reinstallation of the engines. Many of the affected aircraft are in commercial service and a company spokeswoman said there might be compensation for business losses.
"That will be handled on an individual basis," she said.
A subcontractor makes the potentially faulty cranks but Bishop refused to identify the company. She did say that Lycoming would negotiate a cost-sharing arrangement with the subcontractor. Insurance might cover much of the costs, which could reach $15 million.
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