Watchdog finds Qantas problems

2008-09-01 09:59

Kristen Gelineau

Sydney - Australia's aviation agency on Monday ordered Qantas Airways to improve its maintenance system following a review prompted by a series of safety problems that have plagued the airline in recent months.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority said it found deficiencies and "signs of emerging problems" in the way Qantas manages and delivers maintenance to its planes.

"The review found maintenance performance within Qantas is showing some adverse trends and is now below the airline's own benchmarks," the authority's deputy chief executive officer of operations, Mick Quinn, said in a statement. "By taking action now future safety problems will be avoided."

A Qantas spokesperson said the airline would comment on the results of the review later on Monday.

Last week, air safety investigators confirmed that an exploding oxygen cylinder ripped a gaping hole in a Qantas jet's fuselage mid-flight in July, forcing it to make an emergency landing in the Philippines.

Since that incident, the airline has experienced a series of problems, including a loss of hydraulic fuel that led to an emergency landing, landing gear failure and detached panels, all of which prompted the aviation authority's review.

But Quinn said the review had not found any links between those incidents, calling them "unrelated events".

"There has been no increase in the rate of incidents and over more than a year the number of monthly air safety incident reports was about the same," he said.

The aviation authority said it planned to conduct two additional "intensive audits" of Qantas.

The first audit would involve a physical examination and a check of maintenance documentation for one of each major aircraft type in the Qantas fleet - a 747-400, 737-400 and 767-300.

The second audit will examine the effectiveness of Qantas maintenance systems in managing and implementing airworthiness directives.

The aviation authority's spokesperson could not be immediately contacted for further comment.

On July 25, a Boeing 747-400 aircraft, carrying 365 people, was flying over the South China Sea when an explosion blew a hole in the fuselage two metres wide and 1.52m. The plane - en route from London to Melbourne, Australia - rapidly descended thousands of metres and flew to Manila, 475km away.

No one was injured in the incident, but questions were raised about the much-lauded safety of Qantas, which has never lost a jet aircraft because of an accident.

- AP