fabricoftruth

Hi FT'ers, just FYI.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/30794196.cms

NEW DELHI: A Boeing 777 aircraft of American carrier United Airlines was grounded at Mumbai airport on Thursday night after engineers found that its right engine cover was badly damaged, official sources said on Friday.

The aircraft, operating flight UA-48 from Newark to Mumbai, arrived around 10pm on Thursday and the engineers found the right-side engine cowl badly damaged, the sources said.

love_to_travel

If I'm reading this right, the plane flew all the way from EWR to BOM with the damaged cowl?

PushingTin

I've done that flight a few times. A whole lot of nothing and Afghanistan for the second half of the flight, not where I want to have to divert......

FLYDCA

It would not surprise me at all if this was deferred maintenance. With billions of dollars in cuts occurring some concerning choices may be coming to light.

Xyzzy

That's a rather absurd allegation with abslutely NO evidence whatsoever to support it. I suggest we wait to see what is reported before jumping to conclusions.

escapefromphl

It wouldn't surprise me either if US aircraft received extra scrutiny in BOM...

JDT1955

49 was also cancelled on 2/16 for unclear reasons. Looks like it flew the next day as an extra flight. Anyone know why?

fly18725

Deferred maintenance doesn't save money, it just defers the timing of expenses.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't give statement by the DGCA much credibility.

EWR764

UAL may be skimping on everything related to the passenger experience, but I have seen absolutely no indication that the maintenance budget is being unnecessarily curtailed. To the contrary, there has been substantial investment in fleet maintenance since the merger.

Sometimes things happen to airplanes that cause them to be taken out of service, and sometimes, the extent of damage or otherwise is not known until the aircraft is safely on the ground. I can assure you that no pilot worth his salt would ever embark on a long ETOPS haul with the knowledge that there was some irregularity with an engine at such an early phase of flight. The engines are probably the most sacrosanct aircraft system in ETOPS flying. Pilots will not take chances with that.

LaserSailor

Damaged cowl.....conspiracy theory.

It's better to ignore posts like this than copy and respond.

FLYDCA

My comments are based on my recent experiences with on board customer facing hardware which was not being repaired in a timely manner. I have no indication that safety may be impacted but it does beg the question FOR ME of what impact the ongoing billions in cuts may eventually have elsewhere.

frequentjohn

I was on this flight. I realize they had no choice to cancel the flight but United handled it horribly. It took them hours to figure out how to get everyone out of the airport so I am still in Mumbai. They had to take us back through customs to "cancel" our exit from India. It took them a couple of hours to figure out how to get us out of the departure side so we missed all alternative connecting flights to Europe. Hopefully I will get out tonight on Air France through Paris. United originally re-booked me on a return flight next Tuesday getting me home Wednesday and could not understand why this was not a valid option! I had to call United to get better options. The whole thing has been one disaster after another. It's too bad because the new BOM terminal is much nicer.

mgcsinc

That's a completely ridiculous comparison.

noah

Sadly, this is the least surprising post in this thread. Irrops seem to be increasingly challenging for this airline.

frequentjohn

One of the ground staff said it was a foreign object strike, most likely a bird strike on take off. They said the damage was significant and noticed when the plane arrived. It had nothing to do with deferred maintenance.