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Ansett wing cracks cause travel chaos

By Robert Wainwright, Transport Writer

Ansett was under major investigation last night and the Easter travel plans of thousands of passengers were thrown into confusion after its fleet of 767-200 jets was grounded when cracks were found in a major structural component inside the wings.

The company, beset by maintenance problems, was forced yesterday to book dozens of passengers aboard rival Qantas flights from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane as cracks were found in the engine pylons of three 15-year-old planes being inspected after a directive by the manufacturer, Boeing.

----------------------------------------------------------------- They are the same planes which threw Ansett's Christmas schedules into chaos when they were grounded because a Boeing deadline, to check for tail cracks, had been ignored.

Last night, four other Ansett 767-200s - which carry 211 passengers and fly the main trunk routes between capital cities - were also grounded for checks for hairline fractures to the same components.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority issued an air worthiness directive last night and sent in its own investigation team.

A spokesman for the authority, Mr Peter Gibson, described the problem as serious, revealing that similar cracking in engine pylons had been the cause of accidents.

"The problem is more serious than at Christmas, because in this area of the aircraft it does not have a fail-safe design," he said. "there have been crashes in the past involving at least one 747 jet.

"We take this whole thing very seriously because we are talking about a vital component. We have to find out why the cracks were found. It is a critical area, and recognised as such."

An Ansett spokesman, Mr Geoff Lynch, confirmed that cracks about five centimetres long were found in the engine pylons of all three aircraft. The company hoped to have the planes repaired and back in the air by Thursday.

The other four jets - two in Melbourne and one each in Brisbane and Sydney - would be inspected overnight and today.

Mr Lynch said that Ansett had grounded the planes voluntarily and he insisted that the safety of passengers had not been compromised.

"We undertook to complete a series of inspections by the end of this month," he said. "In the course of those inspections we found a small crack in an engine pylon mount which is part of the internal structure of the wing.

"We elected to accelerate the inspection program so we have brought forward all inspections. We are talking about a small hairline crack of less than five centimetres."

Mr Lynch said that two of the remaining four jets had been cleared by a visual inspection. "However, in the circumstances, we are considering upgrading the rigour of the inspections and applying an electronic technique to detect any cracks that might be invisible.

"One plane is from Sydney and the other in Brisbane. We have taken them out of service until the inspections are complete and we are working on a maintenance program right now. It is difficult to say when all four will be back in the air.

"I honestly don't know how many passengers have been affected. We are hoping our Easter schedule will not be affected or, if it is, that the effect will be minimal.

"Flight safety has not been compromised at all. Ansett takes every safety issue seriously and will not fly an aircraft if there is a maintenance issue."

A spokeswoman for Qantas confirmed that Ansett passengers had been transferred during the day.

"We don't know how many because Ansett booked them through our reservations line," she said.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0104/10/pageone/pageone1.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 09, 2001

Answers

Airline chaos: no end in sight

THE ANSETT DEBACLE

By BRENDAN NICHOLSON Sunday 15 April 2001 Whistleblowers grounded airline: union No compensation for accommodation losses Ansett Airlines will borrow aircraft from the United Arab Emirates and Canada to carry its passengers as it faces up to two more weeks of chaos, with safety authorities warning it will take that long to get its grounded fleet of 767s back into service.

The airline - engaged in a public row with the safety regulator, which grounded its fleet of 10 Boeing 767 passenger jets - is already using aircraft from its parent, Air New Zealand, as well as Qantas and Impulse to help ferry thousands of passengers throughout Australia.

Tension between Ansett and the aviation watchdog increased yesterday when the airline ran newspaper advertisements apologising to its customers and disputing the Civil Aviation Safety Authority's view that its aircraft might be unsafe.

"Each of the issues of significant concern to CASA was identified by us and reported to CASA by us," said Ansett.

CASA spokesman Peter Gibson rejected the criticism, saying the authority had "put safety first, the travelling public first. That is right and proper".

He said the 767 fleet would be examined one by one, and the entire operation could take up to two weeks.

"As long as they get on with the job of giving us a plan for improvements to their company into the future, then the relationship will remain a good, strong working one," he said.

Ansett spokeswoman Heather Jeffery said the advertisements were more an apology to customers than an attack on CASA.

"I don't think we're attacking them, we're just expressing, as we have all the time, we're absolutely determined to prove to them that our airline operation is safe and to meet their requirements."

Yesterday, the airline also pulled advertisements for its package holidays. CASA, which is also carrying out spot checks on Ansett's Boeing 737s and Airbuses, has cancelled all leave for its staff so that they will be available to check Ansett's fleet.

The crisis for Ansett deepened when CASA grounded the fleet after finding the airline had operated an aircraft for a day-and-a-half with no emergency slides. "We had to say to Ansett, `This is enough. You have to give us a plan for change. A real plan for improvement within your organisation that is going to pick up morale, improve training, improve communications within your organisation'," Mr Gibson said.

"If the people on the shop floor are not confident about their future and their jobs, haven't got strong leadership, then standards slip, and that is exactly what has happened here with Ansett.

"Clearly, Ansett is an organisation with troubles. Clearly, Ansett is an organisation that has to make big changes to the way it operates, to its structure, its management.

"There have to be fundamental changes in the management structure and organisation of Ansett and, at the same time, there has to be a plan that shows these changes flow through to the shop floor level in the maintenance area where the workers are doing the job."

CASA was yesterday examining the paperwork for the first of the 10 aircraft to be examined by its engineers in Melbourne and hoped to begin inspecting it last night. It would take at least two days to complete the work.

"We'll be looking at the airframe, the engine and the undercarriage, and making sure that all the work that should have been done on that aircraft has in fact been done," Mr Gibson said.

"Depending on what we find we'll make judgments as to what degree we inspect the rest of the fleet.

"As we tick them off and they're proven to be OK, they can go back into service."

Spot checks had been carried out already on dozens of aircraft in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney and no problems had been found.

Mr Gibson said delays by Ansett in producing maintenance records had slowed the checks by a day and showed how stressed the company was. "It's a difficult time for them. I'm sure they're working their hardest to fulfil all their obligations to us but it's proving difficult."

But an Ansett spokeswoman said CASA only notified the airline yesterday afternoon about the documentation it needed.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/04/15/FFX63S29ILC.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 15, 2001.