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“We hope the investigation will proceed quickly so that we can resume flight tests as soon as possible,” Duchesne said.

Pratt’s Role

Bombardier is being assisted by the engine maker, United Technologies Corp.’s Pratt & Whitney unit. More than 4,000 hours of engine testing have been conducted since trials began in September 2010, according to Bombardier’s website. The company has said the CSeries, which features the new geared turbofan engine from Pratt & Whitney, will cost about 15% less to operate and produce less noise.

The planemaker’s Class B stock dropped 2.4% to $3.69 at the close in Toronto. Earlier the shares fell as much as 6.4% to their lowest level since Feb. 24.

“This news is unlikely to help sentiment in the CSeries, and could raise questions about the Geared Turbofan and the other platforms that it has been selected to power,” Robert Stallard, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in New York, wrote today in a note to clients.

“The whole point of ‘testing’ an aircraft is to find out if everything works perfectly — and then fix it before it enters service,” Stallard said. “We’ve seen other testing issues in the past, but ultimately the issues have been addressed and the aircraft has entered operation. We expect this to be the case with the GTF.”

While rare, damaging engine failures during flight operations and ground trials do occur. In August 2010, a Rolls- Royce Holdings Plc Trent 1000 engine for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner suffered a blowout on a testbed in the U.K. Three months later, a Trent 900 model exploded on an Airbus A380 flown by Qantas Airways Ltd.