737s get safety clearance

2007-11-13 07:25

Johannesburg - Boeing 737-200's belonging to Comair and Kulula and SAA Cargo have been found safe after engine mount inspections, SA Airways Technical (SAT) said on Monday.

Last week the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) sent out a directive to have all Boeing 737-200s inspected after the engine of a Nationwide aircraft fell off during a flight.

The plane had to make an emergency landing at Cape Town International Airport last Wednesday.

"Before this directive was issued, we had already complied, but we redid the inspections as required and found no fault on these aircraft," said SAT CEO Jan Blake.

He said six planes belonging to Comair and Kulula and two belonging to SAA Cargo and maintained by Safair were found problem-free.

Blake said SAT did do ad-hoc maintenance for various airlines.

However this maintenance did not include the mounting of engines which was the responsibility of the specific airline, he said.

"We have done maintenance on B737-200 Aircraft for 40 years and have never experienced an incident of this magnitude," said Blake.

On Monday CAA spokesperson Phindiwe Gwebu said a number of airlines had submitted inspections reports while others were in the process of conducting the required inspections.

She said Nationwide had submitted reports on inspections conducted on seven of their aircraft - three met the CAA's requirements while four others complied with 90% of the requirements.

"The CAA has given clearance to operate (the four aircraft)... the 10% remaining (requirements) have not been deemed as putting passengers at risk at all," she said.

Nationwide would have to report back to the CAA in two weeks on the outstanding requirements.

"It has nothing to do with engine functionality and mounting," Gwebu said.

Interair told the CAA that of their three aircraft, only two were operational. They confirmed that one would be inspected by the end of the day on Monday.

Star Air Cargo has completed inspections on one of their four Boeing 737-200s and the other three have been grounded.

The CAA was waiting for their report.

Reports submitted by Interlink were under review by the authority on Monday.

- SAPA