News Item on the flight
Hal Mattern
The Arizona Republic
May. 12, 2003 12:00 AM
America West Airlines is inspecting 47 of its jet engines after one of them shut down during a flight to Washington, D.C., two weeks ago, causing the plane to land in St. Louis.
The incident occurred April 27 on Flight 44 between Phoenix and Washington, D.C. The pilot and some passengers said they heard some thumps and the cabin began filling with smoke.
The two-engine Airbus A319 was diverted to St. Louis and most of the passengers continued to Washington on another plane. No one was injured.
"They told us to put our heads down and prepare for an emergency landing," said Krista Salmon of Mesa, who was on the flight with her father. "Everyone thought we were dead. Nobody thought we would walk away."
Officials of Tempe-based America West said Pratt & Whitney, which made the engine, told them Friday that there had been a few similar incidents involving the engines. There are 650 of the engines in use by airlines.
Mark Sullivan, a spokesman for Pratt & Whitney, said the problem apparently occurred when the coating on an engine shaft flaked off and caused a bearing failure. That resulted in an oily mist resembling smoke to enter the plane. There was no fire, he said.
Sullivan said Pratt & Whitney has recommended that all of its customers do more frequent inspections of the engines and replace the shaft and bearing with a new model during the next maintenance.
America West spokeswoman Janice Monahan said the airline was conducting the recommended inspections and also is doing more extensive checks on its engines.
Salmon praised the pilots and flight attendants for the way they handled the situation, especially since the pilot told the passengers after landing that the cockpit was so smoky it was difficult to see the instruments.