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Cathay Pacific, the flagship carrier for Hong Kong, has grounded its fleet of Airbus A350-1000s for inspection after identifying faulty engine components in 15 out of 18 aircraft. According to a report on September 3 by Channel News Asia, Cathay Pacific Flight CX383 departed from Hong Kong en route to Zurich, Switzerland but returned shortly after takeoff due to a failure in an unspecified component of one of its Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines. The twin-aisle Airbus landed safely 75 minutes after takeoff following two holding circuits to burn fuel.
Reuters reported that a person familiar with the incident indicated the issue involved a fuel nozzle. It remains unclear whether the engine lost power during the flight. Cathay Pacific stated that this was "the first of its type to suffer such failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide."
The long-range A350 series, all powered by Rolls-Royce Trent engines, can accommodate between 300 and 480 passengers. The smaller A350-900 is equipped with the TXWB-84 version of the Trent series. Cathay Pacific’s A350 fleet includes 18 A350-1000s. It is not yet determined if the -84 engine will also undergo inspection.
