FAA orders mandatory checks of Boeing 737 engines

The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday ordered inspections of fan blades on engines like the one that failed Tuesday on a Southwest Airlines plane, killing one passenger. The government agency considered ordering mandatory inspections of the CFM56-7B engines used on Boeing 737s last year, after the manufacturer recommended the checks. But the FAA never issued the final order. CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric Co. and France’s Safran SA, recommended the additional inspections after another Southwest plane suffered engine failure in 2016. Investigators blamed metal fatigue for that accident and said a similar problem likely caused Tuesday’s incident. Under the new directive, airlines that have planes with the affected engines must conduct ultrasonic inspections of fan blades to check for microscopic metal fatigue after a certain number of takeoffs and landings. European regulators issued a similar order last month. Southwest said it plans to inspect all of its 700 planes over the next month. The fan blade that separated from its hub in Tuesday’s incident shredded the outside of the engine, sending shrapnel into the aircraft. One window cracked open, and the sudden rush of air sucked Jennifer Riordan, a Wells Fargo bank executive from Albuquerque, N.M., partially out of the plane. Fellow passengers pulled her back inside but she later died of her injuries.