(Update1)

By Antony Sguazzin

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co.'s 737-200 aircraft in South Africa were grounded for inspections after an engine fell off an airplane belonging to Nationwide Airlines, the country's aviation authority said.

The Boeing planes at Nationwide Airlines have already been grounded and those belonging to other carriers will be grounded in two days, Phindi Gwebu, a spokeswoman for the Johannesburg-based Civil Aviation Authority said today.

An engine fell off the plane during takeoff in Cape Town on Nov. 7, leading to the decision yesterday to ground the Boeing model. Nationwide's competitors have been instructed to carry out visual inspections immediately and full inspections will take place on Nov. 12 to avoid excessive disruption of flight schedules, the authority said.

``The directive was issued as a precautionary measure,'' Gwebu said in an interview. There are about 31 of the aircraft in South Africa belonging to Nationwide, Comair Ltd., South African Airways Ltd. and smaller operators, she said.

On Nov. 8, Nationwide said the engine on one of its Boeing 737 aircraft ``ingested'' an object before falling from the wing on departure from Cape Town International Airport. The plane continued its takeoff in line with emergency procedures and returned to the airport safely, Johannesburg-based Nationwide said on its Web site. The runway was closed for an hour causing delays.

`Catastrophic Failure'

Chicago-based Boeing said on Nov. 8 that it is ready to assist in any probe. Mark Hooper, a Boeing spokesman based in Hong Kong, didn't immediately return a call today to his mobile phone.

``An object, which is yet to be defined was ingested into the engine, which caused a catastrophic engine failure,'' Nationwide said then. ``The engine-to-wing supporting structure is designed to release the engine when extreme forces are applied to prevent any structural damage.''

The Johannesburg-based Star newspaper today ran the headline ``Death Defying'' on its front page, with pictures of the aircraft after it landed and the engine lying in grass near the runway.

Nationwide, founded in 1991, flies domestic routes in South Africa and operates a service to London's Gatwick airport. It competes with state-owned South African Airways Ltd., Comair Ltd., Comair unit Kulula.com and 1Time Holdings Ltd. Comair is partially owned by British Airways Plc.

To contact the reporter on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

I'd rather have an engine "fall off" on an aircraft where this is DESIGNED to happen than have it happen to an aircraft where it isn't supposed to happen... like a DC-12/MD10

Foreign object injestion leading to a catastrophic engine failure is hardly justification to ground the fleet...



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Typical African overreaction. FOD is always a potential problem, wherever you go on any runway in the world. So are birds.