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Comment by nilsbunger | Hacker News Reader

This kind of directive where they won’t let the plane fly again without an inspection is pretty unusual and disruptive. The planes could be at airports all over the world, and the carriers may have to scramble to find people who can do inspections in all those places, plus have parts ready for any that fail inspection. I bet a bunch of flights have to get cancelled or delayed. Usuallt these emergency directives let you comply over a period of days which reduces the operational complexity a lot - you can get it done at your depots, plan out downtimes, and sequence the inspections and repairs so the shop doesn’t have 10 airplanes waiting in line at the same time for the inspection.

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It's not that disruptive. The planes affected are a minority of Boeing 777 models, most of these planes are already idle due to the pandemic, and many spare planes of comparable capabilities are available.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeings-777-problem-is-no-max-1...

"The affected 777s are the kind of big, old jets that airlines have kept in storage during the Covid-19 crisis. Out of 127 in operation, according to Cirium, 67 were already parked."

There are ~1450 Boeing 777s worldwide, mostly using GE90 engines, including 250 idle ones. The GE90-equipped planes are also generally more capable than the ones with PW4000s, and suitable for longer flights.

Agreed this is unusual. The airlines could likely send inspection teams with appropriate equipment to the airport they are presently at. It is also probable the FAA would issue "ferry permits" to fly the jets to a maintenance base.

United Airlines and probably some other 777 operators fly cargo-only some flights in those aircraft, since the pandemic restrictions started. This would give operators some flexibility to minimize the number of cancelled flights.

For airlines like United Airlines, they fly both 777-200 and 777-300 aircraft. The United Airlines 777-300 aircraft fly with GE90 engines, which are not grounded.

Thanks this was a great follow up. I hadn’t realized it was only a small fraction of the 777 fleet that had these engines

A single engine is 25$ million dollars on a 777. Not exactly something they want to push till its limits on inspections

I disagree with everything you said.

This is a serious problem, and airliners only land at airports with facilities, and engines are falling out of the sky. Sounds like a reasonable AD to me.

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2021-0...

Source: commercially-rated airplane pilot.

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