European Regulators Mandate Emergency Safety Fix for Airbus A330s - by Andy Pasztor

On Friday European regulators issued an emergency safety mandate aimed at preventing ice from dangerously building up inside the fuel systems of some Airbus A330 jetliners and potentially shutting off both of their engines. The move indicates that safety experts have uncovered what they suspect is a new source of icing hazard on these aircraft, and are concerned that it could reduce thrust or even cause engines to stall, or stop running, during takeoffs.

All of the ice-related problems have cropped up with planes powered by engines manufactured by Roll-Royce PLC. Until now, regulators, safety watchdogs and industry officials around the world had concentrated on devising engine fixes to combat icing inside fuel lines and other parts of Rolls-Royce engines during long flights at high altitudes and low temperatures. The fixes involved both Airbus and Boeing models powered by Rolls-Royce engines.

But now, these same experts are focused on different fixes to deal with the hazards of ice clogging up A330 fuel lines during earlier portions of flights.

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