1/ A Russian 767 aircraft that suffered an engine failure when trying to take off from Phuket airport in February had reportedly gone 3 years without the engine being inspected, due to Western sanctions. This has serious implications for air safety. ⬇️
2/ The incident took place on 4 February when the 767-306(ER), operated by Russia's largest charter operator, Azul Air, was attempting to take off with 309 passengers on board. The right engine malfunctioned as the aircraft reached a speed of about 180 km/h (112 mph).
3/ The engine overheated, reaching a temperature of 954 degrees before flaming out. The take-off was aborted and the aircraft braked intensively. The landing gear was damaged, two tires deflated and all four on the right landing gear had to be replaced.
4/ Azur Air said the cause of the malfunction on the right engine was the failure of the compressor's air bypass valve control actuator. Curiously, however, Russia's air regulator Rosavia declined to open an investigation.
5/ According to the Aviatorshina Telegram channel, an inspection by another regulator, Rostransnadzor, revealed that the engine had not been inspected for damage to the engine blades since December 2019.
6/ It was supposed to have been checked every 680 cycles (flights) but had gone more then 1,400 cycles without being inspected. According to Azul Air, this resulted from its loss of access to the Boeing technical inspection system due to sanctions.
7/ Aviatorshina says that the airline was "forced to switch from this foreign system to a new one, which did not include data on the previously performed blade inspection. Because of this, an error occurred when calculating the next inspection run."
8/ Rostransnadzor has now asked Rosavia to investigate 728 instances of the aircraft flying with an uninspected engine as an aviation incident.
Since sanctions were imposed, commentators have been warning that such incidents are inevitable.
Since sanctions were imposed, commentators have been warning that such incidents are inevitable.
9/ Russian airlines have been attempting to substitute sanctioned Western aircraft parts with components of dubious quality and reliability from India and China. However, as this incident shows, access to technical support from aircraft manufacturers is harder to replace. /end
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