Cracks found in engines

Press, 30 August 1985, Page 6

Cracks found in engines

NZPA-Reuter London Four British Airways Boeing 737 aircraft were withdrawn from service yesterday after checks revealed cracks in engine combustion chambers, aviation officials said.

A B.A. Boeing 737 crashed on take-off in Manchester last week, killing 54 people. The United States enginemakers, Pratt and Whitney, blamed a combustion failure.

Aviation officials said that the faulty engines were Pratt and Whitney’s JTBDIS. The four aircraft were grounded for repairs and replacement of the chambers.

The checks disrupted British airports and provoked a string of cancellations by nervous passengers. Twelve planes flew home empty from abroad under

the British Civil Aviation Authority orders, in one case leaving scores of holidaymakers stranded in Spain. Thousands of passengers were delayed for between two and six hours by the checks. A survivor of the Airtours accident, John Hughes, aged 31, of Liverpool, died yesterday in the intensive care unit at Manchester City’s Withington Hospital. John Christopher Lawrence, aged 13, of Sheffield, who is being treated in the hospital’s burns unit, was said to be “poorly but improving.” Seven of the 77 survivors of the August 22 disaster are still being treated in nearby Wythenshaw Hospital. They are all continuing to make good recoveries from the effects of smoke.