MONTREAL — A software update for the GTF engine on Airbus' smallest jet, the A220, is expected in the spring, pending regulatory approval, a top executive at United Technologies Corp's Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine division said on Wednesday. Checks were ordered on the GTF on the Airbus plane last year following engine failures on aircraft operated by Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss International Air Lines AG. [SWIN.UL]Reuters reported last year that a U.S.-led investigation into a series of engine failures on the A220 was studying whether a software change allowed unexpected vibrations that tore parts and forced three emergency landings. "We're going to have a software drop that comes out later this year that will automate everything and enable us to reduce or eliminate all the inspections that we're currently having to perform, but that again is pending regulatory approval," Graham Webb, vice president of Pratt & Whitney commercial engine programs, told Reuters.

Source: International New York Times January 15, 2020 18:35 UTC