(Reuters) - The failure of General Electric Co -made jet engine that caused a freighter to abort takeoff in Shanghai, China, earlier this month did share the same root cause with a fire in a similar engine in Charleston, South Carolina, in July, U.S. safety officials said on Thursday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said that inspections found that the fan shaft on the GEnx engine involved in the Shanghai incident "was intact and showed no indications of cracking," unlike the South Carolina engine, where cracks were found.
Both engines were on Boeing Co jets. No one was injured in either incident.
All of the GEnx engines in service have been inspected and the Federal Aviation Administration last week ordered that the engines be inspected every 90 days for signs of cracking. GE has since changed the coating it applies to the fan shaft that cracked.
Jeff Immelt, chief executive of the largest U.S. conglomerate, told reporters on Thursday that it was good news that the two incidents did not share a common root cause.
"I think the NTSB's fine with where it stands, deliveries are going forward and I actually think the fact that it is a different cause is more positive than negative," he said at the company's executive training center in Crotonville, New York, where GE officials were meeting with investors and analysts.
GE's rivals in the jet engine market include United Technologies Corp 's Pratt & Whitney unit and Britain's Rolls-Royce PLC.
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