Preliminary investigations into last week’s throttle-response failure on an American Airlines Boeing 777-200ER suggest that a simple inadvertent obstruction of the throttle lever might have been responsible.

The aircraft had been approaching Los Angeles on 28 February, with its engines at flight-idle power and the auto-throttle engaged, when its left-hand powerplant apparently did not respond to a command for more thrust. Although the right-hand engine behaved normally, the left remained at flight-idle for 10-15 seconds before its thrust increased.

American’s incident came just six weeks after an identical British Airways aircraft crashed short of the runway at London Heathrow when both engines failed to respond to a thrust-increase command. Both carriers’ 777-200s are fitted with Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines.

But a source f

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