European regulators have pinpointed a potentially flawed cleaning process during maintenance as investigators probe an engine fire that caused a Cathay Pacific Airbus jet carrying 348 people to turn back to base.

Hong Kong aviation investigators say an engine problem that caused Cathay Pacific to ground its entire fleet of Airbus A350 jets for inspection earlier this month could have escalated into “extensive damage.

A cleaning process leading to fuel hose degradation during refurbishment may have caused a recent Airbus A350 engine fire that triggered dozens of Cathay Pacific flight cancellations this month, the

Europe's aviation regulator on Thursday linked a recent engine fire on a Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 to a possible problem with the maintenance of its Rolls-Royce engines.