KARACHI: Pakistan International Airline (PIA) has confirmed that all Boeing 777 aircraft in the national flag carrier fleet are equipped with General Electric engines, considered to be the safest engines.

The confirmation was made after US plane manufacturer Boeing has recommended grounding all of the 777-model aircraft which have the same type of engine that suffered failure during United Flight 328, bound for Honolulu.

The United Flight 328, carrying 231 passengers, was forced to make an emergency landing at Denver airport. No-one was injured. Meanwhile, US plane manufacturer Boeing stated that "While [an] investigation is ongoing, we recommended suspending operations of the 69 in-service and 59 in-storage 777 aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines."

Following the incident, extra inspections of Boeing 777 jets fitted with the Pratt & Whitney 4000 engine are in progress.

Meanwhile, PIA spokesman said that the Boeing company has recently recommended suspending operations of the 69 in service and 59 in storage 777s powered by Prat & Whitney 4000-12 engines and added that the engines installed in PIA aircraft were of General Electric considered to be the safest and nearly 1,000 engines were being used worldwide. He said that PIA has 12 Boeing 777s powered by General Electric Engines. Needless to mention, United Airline was the only US airline flying this model of 777, with the others being in Japan and South Korea.

The United flight 328, bound for Honolulu, suffered a failure in its right-hand engine and the debris from the jet was found scattered over a nearby residential area after it returned to Denver airport.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021

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