Air NZ engine that caught fire during flight is new, source says

RNZ has been told the engine that caught fire on an Air New Zealand flight to Wellington was brand new and had only flown three times.

An Air New Zealand source said when engineers in Christchurch installed the new engine on the plane, they bolted it to the airframe, connected and wired it, before fully testing it.

They did not work inside the engine, as it was new.

The source said that during the plane’s third flight, one of the internal rotors came loose, causing an oil line to rupture and the fire to break out when the oil hit the hot engine.

The E tū union represents engineers, cabin crew and firefighters at Wellington Airport.

The union’s aviation chief, Savage, said Morning report The problem seems to be with the engine itself, rather than the work done by the engineers.

“That’s based on preliminary information that the union received from Christchurch, and the information that we had was that it appeared that a part inside the engine, possibly one of the turbine rotors, had become loose, that there was a vibration, and that had caused either damage or shearing of one of the oil lines, and that the oil leak was what caused the smoke and the fire.”

Savage stressed that this was based on preliminary information provided to the union and that the engine had been tested before being installed on the aircraft.

“As you can see, these engineers take all this work very seriously and there are very strict guidelines on what needs to be done to ensure the engine is ready to run.”

But because the part that could have caused the fire was inside the engine, it could not have been tested before the engine was shipped.

The engine was manufactured by Pratt and Whitney, which has a long history of manufacturing engines for ATR aircraft.

“Obviously it is concerning whether this is a problem with these engines or whether it is just an isolated case, we do not know this information yet.

“There have been numerous issues with the Pratt and Whitney engines used on the A321 Neo, so I’m sure all airlines that use this engine are monitoring closely to see if there is a bigger problem.”

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission’s report on the incident is currently being prepared.

Air New Zealand said it would not comment until an investigation into the cause of the fire was complete.