Cathay Pacific says it has found a faulty component in an engine on an Airbus A350. An inspection of these Airbus aircraft with turbines from the British manufacturer Rolls-Royce has therefore been initiated, Cathay announced on Monday.

The unscheduled inspections of all aircraft in the Cathay fleet will result in the cancellation of 24 flights by Tuesday. In addition, some aircraft will be taken out of service for several days, Cathay said. This is a precautionary measure. All jets should be operational again by Saturday.

All 48 of the airline’s A350 aircraft are being examined. During the course of the investigations, 15 aircraft have already been identified in which engine components had to be replaced – three have already been repaired, according to Cathay.

The fault was discovered on a jet that must have been returning from Hong Kong on a flight to Zurich on Monday. According to Flightradar, the five-year-old aircraft made two wide circles and dumped fuel before selling to Hong Kong, where it landed safely about 75 minutes after departure.

According to the Hong Kong airline, the incident occurred with one of the 18 A350-1000s in the fleet.

Various information on faulty parts

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters the incident was a problem with a fuel nozzle in an XWB-97 engine, the Rolls-Royce model used on the A350-1000.

Other sources report deformed or damaged fuel lines. The flexible hoses that supply the engines with fuel are now to be checked as a precautionary measure on the entire A350 fleet, the Bloomberg news agency reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Cathay itself did not describe the engine component in detail, but it was said that it was the first aircraft of this type to have experienced such a failure anywhere in the world. An Airbus spokesman referred a request to Cathay and the engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce.

Rolls-Royce indicated on Tuesday that the replacement could take place while the engine remains on the wing. The British engine maker said it was “working with the airline, the aircraft manufacturer and the relevant authorities to assist in the investigation of this incident.”

Differences between A350-900 and -1000

Other airlines said they had not yet received instructions to inspect their engines.

The Airbus A350 is a long-range twin-engine aircraft that can carry between 300 and 480 passengers. It comes in two sizes: the A350-900 and the larger A350-1000, both of which are powered exclusively by Rolls-Royce engines.

The A350-1000 and the A350 Freighter use Trent XWB-97 engines, Rolls-Royce’s largest commercial jet engine. The much more common A350-900 uses the Trent XWB-84 engines.

According to “CH-Aviation”, there are 520 A350-900s in operation worldwide. In contrast, there are only 88 A350-1000s in operation. The six largest operators are Qatar Airways with 24 aircraft, British Airways with 18, Cathay Pacific with 18, Virgin Atlantic with twelve and Etihad Airways and Japan Airlines (JAL) with five aircraft each.