RTX shares tumble on Pratt & Whitney GTF engine problem
RTX Corp, formerly Raytheon, said more than a thousand of its Pratt & Whitney GTF engines that power Airbus A320neo jets will need “accelerated removals and inspections,” sending shares down 14%.
The news left investors looking for answers about how serious and costly the issue would be for RTX, as airlines worked to access how their service would be impacted by removing and repairing hundreds of engines, Reuters reported.
“Pratt & Whitney has determined that a rare condition in powder metal used to manufacture certain engine parts will require accelerated fleet inspection,” forcing an inspection of 1,200 out of more than 3,000 engines produced between 2015 to 2021, RTX said on Tuesday. The inspections will occur over the next nine to 12 months, but there was no impact on engines that are in production, the company said.
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Microscopic contaminants in a Pratt & Whitney proprietary metal used in the engine’s high-pressure turbine discs were present, RTX management told Wall Street analysts on a post-earnings conference call.
Replacing the disks involves removing the engine and disassembling it, inspecting and potentially replacing the disk, and then reassembling the engine, Raytheon Chief Operating Officer Chris Calio said.
RTX said it began addressing the problem about 10 days ago.
Airbus says in a statement that it is not an immediate safety issue.
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