FAA orders high-tech inspections of jet engines on Boeing 777s

US aviation regulators on Tuesday issued stringent new inspection requirements to ensure Pratt & Whitney engines like the one that broke apart over a Denver suburb on Saturday are safe.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s airworthiness directive mandates that the titanium fan blades on certain Pratt & Whitney engines be examined immediately before they can return to service. Pratt & Whitney is a division of Raytheon Technologies Corp.

The action was prompted by the violent failure of a fan blade on one of two engines mounted on a United Airlines plane, a Boeing Co. 777-200.