Today's press release from Royal Brunei Airlines.
Royal Brunei Airlines to face temporary flight disruption; Rolls Royce working to resolve engine defects on Boeing 787 aircraft
Oct. 28, 2015
On Wednesday 21 October 2015, Royal Brunei Airlines (RB) experienced a technical incident on flight number BI 684 from Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL) to Brunei International Airport (BWN), operated by a Boeing 787-8 aircraft powered by Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines. The aircraft experienced an inflight shutdown on one of the engines, just after takeoff and in accordance with normal procedures the captain decided to return to MNL. The aircraft landed safely and without incident and all 152 passengers were safely disembarked at the terminal.
Since then, Rolls Royce has conducted a detailed boroscope inspection of both engines as part of preparations to replace the affected engine, with a spare which has already been transported to MNL from BWN.
However, in recent hours information has been conveyed to the airline by Rolls Royce that the second on wing engine on this aircraft has itself being the subject of similar damage. The boroscope inspection has now revealed evidence of damage to a number of blades on both engines, for reasons which are as yet unknown. At this point, there is no evidence that an external event such as a bird strike has caused this damage to both engines. Efforts to establish the cause of the damage by Rolls Royce are continuing, fully supported by the RB Engineering team.
At the same time, RB has been in consultations with Brunei Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) concerning the flight safety and technical aspects of this incident. Following this consultation and in the interests of passenger safety, which is our primary concern above all other matters, a boroscope inspection will now be conducted for all Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines on the remaining three Boeing 787-8 aircraft operated by RB.
Of necessity, this inspection process will cause very severe disruption to RB scheduled services for the next number of days.
Deputy Chairman, Dermot Mannion commented: ‘We extend our sincere apologies to our loyal passengers for this disruption to their travel plans. However, we know our passengers will appreciate the safety reasons for which this difficult decision has had to be taken. Please rest assured that RB is working with Rolls Royce and Boeing, at the very highest level, to return our aircraft to normal operations, as quickly as possible.’