Whitney – COOPER GENERAL NEWS

The Federal Aviation Administration announced late Tuesday that Pratt & Whitney engines on Boeing 777 aircraft must be inspected before the jets can fly again in the United States.

On Saturday, one of the engines caught fire during a United Airlines flight and covered Colorado in debris, the latest episode of its kind to involve this engine family in recent years.

United is the only American airline to operate Boeing 777s equipped with the PW4000 series of engines, and the airline announced on Sunday that it has grounded those 24 aircraft in its active fleet while waiting for the FAA leadership. In December, a similar Pratt & Whitney engine failed aboard a Japan Airlines 777.

United said it would ensure those two dozen planes and 28 more in the warehouse comply with FAA regulation. Pratt & Whitney said in a statement that the safe operation of the fleet is “a top priority”.

Before the jets can fly again, the large titanium hollow fan blades on the front of each engine must be removed and shipped to a Pratt & Whitney facility for a “thermoacoustic image” inspection under this technique, according to the FAA, a fan blade bombarded with high frequency vibrations, which increases its temperature. A thermal image of the blade is then recorded and analyzed for any unusual readings that could indicate a possible crack.

In 2018, a United flight on the same aircraft and engine combination suffered a similar failure, prompting the FAA to order engine inspections every 6,500 flights. In its statement on Tuesday, the agency said it may adjust this inspection frequency.

Also on Saturday, a Boeing 747 equipped with a relative of this engine suffered a similar fate and lost parts in the Netherlands. The European Aviation Authority has said it does not believe the episode is related to the other errors. None of the four engine failures resulted in death. Two people are said to have suffered minor injuries in the Netherlands.

Another round of coronavirus downsizing was carried out at the Whitney Museum of American Art when 15 employees across 11 departments were told they would be laid off, the museum’s director Adam Weinberg said in an email to staff last week .

The move was taken as part of an ongoing effort to address the severe financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The layoffs were first reported by Artnet News.

The Whitney closed in March last year, as did other museums and cultural institutions in New York City because of the pandemic.

Since the reopening in August, ticket sales have declined by 80 percent compared to the same period last year, Weinberg wrote.

“As many of you have seen firsthand, our visit remains extremely low,” wrote Weinberg, adding, “Cuts to our on-site events and programs have significantly reduced sales.”

The email message was shared by Whitney with the New York Times.

The audited annual financial statements of the museum for the fiscal year ending June 2020 seem to show the beginning of the effect described by Weinberg. Total approval revenue for that year was reported as $ 5.8 million compared to $ 13.5 million last year.

The museum’s website lists three current exhibitions that have opened since August. These include “Nothing is so humble: prints of everyday objects”; “Collaboration: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop,” a chronicle of a collective of black photographers founded in New York City in 1963; and oil paintings by Salman Toor.

Several other large museums were also affected by the pandemic last year. The Neues Museum has put some employees on leave and laid off others, union members said. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation turned to vacation and wage cuts. And the Metropolitan Museum of Art has shrunk its ranks through layoffs, vacations, and voluntary retirements.

Last year, the Whitney reportedly laid off 76 employees while preparing to lose at least $ 7 million to the shutdown.

In his email message last week, Weinberg said the toll was much higher and wrote, “Unfortunately, the pandemic is prolonging Whitney’s financial losses, which to date total $ 23 million.”

Weinberg acknowledged the recent positive news regarding vaccines and was cautious. He said the economic recovery in the cultural sector and elsewhere would be gradual and potentially unpredictable, noting that the New York tourism agency had forecast that it could be until 2025 for visitors to arrive in the same numbers as before the pandemic to return to New York.

“We don’t know how long this period of extreme trouble will last,” he added. “And we anticipate further significant sales losses.”