Cathay Pacific Inspects A350 Fleet After Engine Failure

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways announced on Tuesday that it had inspected its entire Airbus A350 fleet following an in-flight engine component failure. The incident involved a flight from Hong Kong to Zurich on Monday, September 2nd.

The five-year-old A350-1000 aircraft experienced a problem shortly after takeoff. Flight tracking service FlightRadar24 reported that the plane performed two wide circles and dumped fuel over the sea before returning to Hong Kong. The aircraft landed safely about 75 minutes after its departure.

Following the incident, Cathay Pacific identified an engine component failure. The airline did not specify the exact component that failed, but stated that it was the "first of its type to suffer such failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide."

According to a source familiar with the matter, the incident involved a problem with a fuel nozzle inside an XWB-97 engine, the Rolls-Royce model used on the A350-1000. The XWB-97 is a high-bypass turbofan engine specifically designed for the Airbus A350 XWB family of aircraft.