CPCAY Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (PK)

Engine trouble on a Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. (0293.HK) flight prompted pilots of the Airbus A330 jet to make an emergency landing in Singapore early Monday, the latest incident involving the Hong Kong-based carrier's twin-engine regional workhorse.

The Jakarta-bound flight with 136 passengers on board returned to Singapore at 0157 local time, just over an hour after take-off, "following a stall warning from the No. 2 engine," Cathay Pacific said in a statement Monday. It said sparks were reported in one of the jet's two engines.

Cathay Pacific said the airline and Rolls-Royce Group PLC (RR.LN), the manufacturer of the plane's engines, are investigating the cause of the malfunction, and that the incident has been reported to the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department.

Cathay Pacific said pilots of flight CX715 shut down the Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engine after receiving the alert and returned the aircraft to Singapore.

Fire crews at the Singapore airport doused the sparks in the No. 2 engine after the aircraft's emergency landing, the airline said, adding passengers and crew on the aircraft "disembarked without incident" via mobile staircases. The passengers were provided with accommodation in Singapore hotels.

Singapore Changi Airport said it closed a runway for more than an hour because of the Cathay Pacific incident, though flight operations weren't affected as another runway remained in use.

Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department, which has received a notification from Cathay Pacific, said Monday the Singapore aviation authority is investigating the incident and it will render assistance as necessary.

"We can appreciate the concern and anxiety felt by the passengers during the incident, but our captain and his crew were in control of the situation at all times," Cathay Pacific said.

"They reacted exactly as they are trained to do, shut down the affected engine and returned the aircraft safely to Singapore."

Modern twin-engine jets are designed to function normally with only one engine operating, according to aviation experts.

As one of Asia's best-managed carriers, Cathay Pacific has had a solid safety record in recent decades. However, the latest engine malfunction follows earlier major incidents the airline has experienced with the A330 aircraft.

In April 2010, a Cathay Pacific A330 made an emergency landing in Hong Kong after both engines malfunctioned as it approached the city, resulting in a much higher-than-normal touchdown speed that led to a small fire in its landing gear as the brakes overheated.

The Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department said in August that fuel contamination was the likely cause of the rare malfunction.

In 1997, Cathay Pacific grounded its entire fleet of A330s for nearly two weeks because of problems with the planes' Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines. Trouble with the gearboxes of the Rolls-Royce engines caused several in-flight engine shutdowns, prompting the carrier to take the aircraft out of service for emergency modifications.

Cathay Pacific and its China-focused unit, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Ltd., have around 50 A330-300s in service operating mainly regional and Australia routes, making the airline group the world's biggest operator of the aircraft type.

In March, the blue-chip airline, which is controlled by conglomerate Swire Pacific Ltd. (0019.HK), said it agreed to buy a total of 25 aircraft at a total catalog price of US$5.99 billion, including 15 A330-300 long-haul aircraft from Airbus, as part of the airline's expansion plans.

Cathay Pacific's shares ended down 1.6% at HK$18.98, tracking the 1.4% decline in the benchmark Hang Seng Index, though the stock had earlier fallen as much as 2.9% in the afternoon session.

-By Joanne Chiu, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; joanne.chiu@dowjones.com

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