Textron Inc. is being investigated by federal air crash investigators over its
apparent failure to alert aircraft owners and pilots to flaws in its
Lycoming engines, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing government
and aviation industry officials.
Flaws in the engines, which power hundreds of Cessna and Piper
aircraft, are believed to have caused two serious accidents since
June, the Journal said, citing the government officials.
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The Federal Aviation Administration will on Friday issue an
order requiring that crankshaft gear bolts on more than 1,000
Lycoming six-cylinder engines built between late 1996 and summer 1998
be replaced, the paper said. The FAA has already issued three
emergency recalls since February on other problems with Lycoming
engines, it reported.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are
investigating the series of events that first alerted Textron’s
Lycoming unit and the FAA about failures of bolts on helicopter
engines three-and-a-half years ago, and the subsequent failure of
bolts in engines fitted to light aircraft, the Journal reported.
The NTSB wants to know why initial problems failed to generate
public inspections or warnings; in the past three months five people
have been killed and three injured because of Lycoming engine failures,
the Journal said, citing unidentified NTSB staff. The NTSB and FAA
confirmed they were investigating, and an unidentified Textron
spokeswoman said the company was collaborating closely with the FAA,
the paper said.
Bloomberg News
