On Friday, August 15, a LOT Polish Airways Boeing 787-9 working flight LO-80 from Tokyo Narita to Warsaw was pressured to divert whereas flying over China. The crew reported issues with one of many plane’s Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines and determined to land at Urumqi.
The jet touched down safely, and passengers had been later rebooked onto different connections. The precise explanation for the problem stays unclear, however the Trent 1000 engines that energy the 787 have beforehand confronted reliability challenges. The plane has not but returned to service and stays on the bottom in Urumqi.
LOT Polish Airways 787 Diverts To Urumqi After Engine Challenge
The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner concerned, registered SP-LSA, was working LOT Polish Airways’ each day Tokyo–Warsaw service. The flight usually departs Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT) at 22:50 native time and arrives at Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW) round 06:00 the next morning. In keeping with Flightradar24, on August 15, flight LO-80 departed barely later at 23:07 earlier than heading northwest throughout China.
Flight monitoring knowledge reveals that the jet was cruising at 11,000 meters over western China, round 620 NM east of Urumqi, when the crew reported a technical challenge with one in every of its engines. They initiated a descent earlier than deciding to divert the plane to Ürümqi Tianshan Worldwide Airport (URC).
The Dreamliner touched down with out additional challenge on runway 26R simply over an hour and a half later, as reported by The Aviation Herald. Passengers had been accommodated on different connections to proceed their journeys. In the meantime, the plane, SP-LSA, has remained grounded in China for the reason that incident.
Trent 1000 Reliability Points Have Shadowed The 787 Program For Years
Photograph: Grand Warszawski | Shutterstock
LOT Polish Airways has not offered particulars on the precise fault detected throughout flight LO-80. However what is obvious is that the plane is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines, one of many two choices provided for the Boeing 787 alongside Basic Electrical’s GEnx.
The Trent 1000 was developed within the mid-2000s solely for the Dreamliner program and has since gathered greater than 20 million flight hours and carried over 350 million passengers. Rolls-Royce continues to refine the design, most not too long ago by means of the Sturdiness Enhancement package deal, which launched a re-engineered high-pressure turbine blade to increase time on wing and enhance emissions efficiency. That being stated, the engine has skilled persistent reliability points.
In 2016, fatigue cracking was found within the intermediate strain turbine blades of a number of All Nippon Airways 787s, which led to widespread inspections and groundings. Two years later, regulators restricted Prolonged-range Twin-engine Operational Efficiency Requirements (ETOPS) clearance for affected Trent 1000 variants from 330 to 140 minutes.
World Airways Nonetheless Grapple With Trent 1000 Disruptions
Photograph: Bradley Caslin | Shutterstock
These challenges have had a major impression on airline operations, and a number of other carriers have needed to alter their methods in consequence. Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Gulf Air, and Norwegian Air are amongst those who have confronted disruptions.
For example, Virgin Atlantic, which operates 17 787-9 Dreamliners, needed to cancel its deliberate London Heathrow–Sao Paulo route that was as a consequence of launch in 2024 after an earlier try through the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as, the provider’s new service to Accra, which was initially scheduled for Could 2025, has additionally been delayed till October 2025. Norwegian Air additionally beforehand cited the Trent 1000 issues as one think about its choice to exit the long-haul market totally.
Sadly for the affected airways, the issues should not anticipated to be totally resolved within the close to time period. Whereas Rolls-Royce has launched technical fixes corresponding to its Sturdiness Enhancement package deal, a scarcity of spare elements continues to sluggish implementation. Analysts count on the disruption to hold properly into 2026.
Talking earlier this yr, Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss advised The Unbiased, “We’ve been coping with this for a really very long time. It began from the launch of the aircraft. The Trent 1000 engine has not been a superb engine. I’m assuming this can persist throughout the entire yr.”
