Lufthansa Grounds 26 Jets to Repair Fire Safety System

Lufthansa airline briefly grounded 26 Boeing 747-400 long-haul aircraft for safety inspections and repairs Tuesday after discovering cracks in lines that carry firefighting agents to the turbine engines.

The discovery prompted the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington to announce plans for similar inspections on Boeing 747s in the United States. Spokesman Eliot Brenner said the order would probably allow the airlines time to do the work rather than requiring immediate action.

Lines had to be replaced on eight of the 747-400 models, and all the jets later were returned to service, Deutsche Lufthansa spokeswoman Sigrid Baeumer said Tuesday.

The cracked lines were discovered early in the day during routine maintenance of one of the 747-400s, and Lufthansa decided to ground all the aircraft until they were inspected and their copper lines replaced.

Baeumer said it was the first time the airline had such a problem with the copper tubing, which is commonly used in aeronautics.

The grounding forced cancellation of a flight to Tokyo, and passengers were sent on a later flight from Frankfurt. All but five of the airline’s 747-400s were in Germany; the others were based in Bangkok, Thailand; Buenos Aires; Cape Town, South Africa; Manila; and Singapore.

Lufthansa said it immediately informed Boeing Co. of the problem.