The French Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA) has launched a call for witnesses to find engine parts lost in July by an Airbus A220 while flying over the Yonne, AFP learned Wednesday from the BEA. This is the first time that this body responsible for determining the causes and circumstances of an incident or air accident uses this process to find a plane, said one of its representatives.
The BEA has issued this call for witnesses "on behalf of the NTSB", its US counterpart investigator because the Pratt & Whitney engine in question is American-designed. The parts of the engine "would have fallen in an unoccupied wooded area close to the communes of Perrigny-sur-Armançon and Cry", indicates the BEA on Twitter.
Incident on a Geneva-London
The incident, described as "serious", occurred on July 25 on an A220 Swiss International company linking Geneva to London. A breakdown on the left engine led the crew to divert the plane to Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport where he landed safely. None of the passengers were injured and the aircraft suffered "minor damage". But an examination of the engine revealed that it had lost some parts of the low pressure compressor. These titanium pieces "should not exceed a length of 30 cm", according to the BEA.
It is "very rare" that a device loses engine parts in flight, according to the BEA. On September 30, 2017, part of one of the A380-800's Paris-Los Angeles jetliners hit flight in mid-air over Greenland. A piece of about 150 kg from this engine was recently found under 4 meters of snow and ice, in the middle of a crevasse.