Aviaton chiefs have been accused of 'messing with people's lives' by refusing to ground the plane involved in last year's crash landing at Heathrow.

Feltham West councillor Peter Pitt told the Chronicle it was 'outrageous' Boeing 777s were still being allowed to fly despite fresh warnings about their safety.

US air accident investigators said last week there was a 'high probability' the engine fault behind the near miss at Heathrow and a second alarm last November could affect other jets.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued an urgent safety recommendation calling for part of the Rolls-Royce engine to be redesigned and, once ready, replaced by airlines within six months.

However, with Boeing estimating the changes will take a year, it could be another 18 months before the improvements are made.

Cllr Pitt said: "It's outrageous 777s are still being allowed to fly. I wouldn't like to go up in one at the moment and it's not fair on the thousands of people living so close to Heathrow under the flight path.

"I think they should have grounded these planes after the near miss at Heathrow, and I certainly think they should be grounded now.

"You can't mess around with people's lives like this."

A Boeing 777 narrowly avoided hundreds of homes in Bedfont on January 17 last year. The same model was involved in another safety alarm on November 26, 2008, when a Delta jet suffered a 'single-engine rollback' but recovered before landing safely in Atlanta.

Both accidents are believed to have been caused by a build-up of ice, which restricted the flow of fuel to the engine.

Boeing has taken steps to prevent that happening and to recover thrust in the event of a blockage, but the NTSB said the 'level of risk reduction is not well established'.

An earlier report by the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) called for problems with the fuel system to be addressed.

NSTB's acting chairman Mark Rosenker said: "With two of these rollback events occurring within a year, we believe there is a high probability of something similar happening again."

Any decision to ground Boeing 777s would have to be taken by the European Aviation Safety Agency.

A spokesman for the organisation said it took the reports by the AAIB and the NTSB very seriously, but that 'operational measures' already in place meant the plane was safe to fly.

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