an airworthiness directive<\/a>\u00a0affecting dozens of Lycoming engine models \u2014 including the types used in both aircraft.<\/p>\nAn airworthiness directive, or AD, is similar to a recall for aircraft parts. The FAA issues them when it identifies a potential safety issue that must be addressed.<\/p>\n
According to the directive, the action was prompted by \u201cseveral reports of connecting rod failures resulting in uncontained engine failures and in-flight shutdowns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the directive was released in March, it did not require action until April 8 \u2014 days after the two local incidents.<\/p>\n
Because investigations into both emergencies are ongoing, it is not yet clear whether the issue outlined in the directive played a role. Still, officials say the overlap raises important questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime that we see a trend, or if the FAA sees a trend, we\u2019re going to start to connect those dots to see if there\u2019s some sort of broader safety issue that can be addressed,\u201d said Peter Knudsen, a spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).<\/p>\n
This is the third airworthiness directive related to connecting rods in Lycoming engines. An earlier directive in 2017 applied to hundreds of engines while the latest expands the scope to potentially more than 45,000 aircraft.<\/p>\n
Aviation attorney and safety expert Arthur Wolk said the growing scope is concerning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re gradually enlarging it, which is troublesome because that means they don\u2019t have a good handle on how many engines were affected and how many engines might be affected,\u201d Wolk said.<\/p>\n
He added that certain metal failures could cause engines to stop abruptly in flight \u2014 a serious hazard.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertain kinds of metal can be associated with the kind of failure they\u2019re talking about. They can cause the engine just to have a hard stop, meaning quit cold. That\u2019s very serious,\u201d Wolk said.<\/p>\n
Aircraft mechanics say the issue can sometimes be detected during routine maintenance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take a magnet and we drag it on top anything ferrous and then we take a real bright light \u2013 like the LEDs you have — to look, see anything glittering,\u201d said mechanic Billy O\u2019Hara. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the inspection.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Hara said mechanics are alerted to new or updated directives when logging maintenance work, but ultimately, compliance responsibility falls on aircraft operators.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to come down to the mechanic. If he missed an AD, he missed the AD,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
NBC10 reached out to Lycoming for comment. The company said it could not discuss ongoing FAA and NTSB investigations but added it \u201ccontinues to support the FAA and NTSB in these processes\u201d and expects findings to be released in due course.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two recent plane emergencies in the region are drawing attention to a common factor \u2014 the engines in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12223,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-174054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-nbc10-investigators","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}