Some Boeing 787 Dreamliners must undergo immediate repair or replacement of at least one engine, under an airworthiness directive issued this week by the FAA. The AD, issued without a comment period to speed up compliance, affects 43 U.S. 787-8s and 787-9sflying with General Electric GEnx-1B engines, according to the AD. The directive stems from an engine failure incident due to ice accumulation and shedding that caused fan blade rubbing, the FAA said. The agency is requiring that at least one engine on affected aircraft be reworked or replaced in 150 days. The FAA noted that a worldwide fleet of 176 aircraft could be affected.
The AD also requires flight crews to revise their ice prevention procedures within seven days, using periodic increases in power to prevent ice buildup, according to a Bloomberg report on Friday. “Work mandated by the AD is already well underway with more than 40 engines complete,” a Boeing spokesman told Bloomberg. Icing problems in the Dreamliner’s GE engines also occurred in 2013, when GE addressed an issue in which airlines were told to avoid high-level thunderstorms by at least 50 miles due to several incidents of ice buildups causing loss of thrust.
