The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued an emergency airworthiness directive requiring one-off on-wing inspections of all Rolls Royce Trent XWB97 engines fitted to Airbus A350-1000 engines.   

The order comes following the incident involving a Cathay Pacific Airbus A350-1000 (registered B-LXI) on September 2, 2024, when the crew was forced to shut down an engine following an inflight fire on a flight between Hong Kong and Zurich. The crew managed to extinguish the fire, and the aircraft subsequently made an emergency landing back in Hong Kong. 

Early investigations by Cathay Pacific engineers assisted by investigators from the Hong Kong Air Accident Investigation Authority back on the ground identified the cause of the fire as a damaged fuel manifold main fuel hose. The fuel hoses, which are common to all Rolls Royce Trent XWB97 engines fitted to A350-1000s fall under the EASA directive which calls for fleet-wide inspections to be performed by airline operators. 

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