787 BACK FLYING AFTER LOSS OF THRUST INCIDENT

The first Boeing 787, MSN ZA001, was forced to divert to Moses Lake, Washington State, on February 19 after it encountered an uncommanded loss of thrust in one of its Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines.

According to the blog of Boeing’s vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth, engineers from Rolls-Royce and Boeing identified that the uncommanded loss of thrust was related to pressure sensing equipment within the engine. A replacement part was dispatched to the grounded aircraft, which was then fitted the next day, allowing for an engine run on that afternoon. The aircraft was then cleared to fly, returning to Boeing Field on February 22.

Boeing says that the aircraft will soon resume flutter testing, and has given no indication if the incident will have any impact on the remainder of its flight testing and certification schedule.

Meanwhile, Boeing has not confirmed when the third flight test aircraft (ZA004) is planned to make its first flight. The aircraft underwent a series of ground tests over the weekend of February 20-21, and had been expected to make its first flight on February 22, but this appears to have been put back to an unspecified date.