Qantas rues more crude repairs
A report in The Australian says that Qantas has been forced to again defend its maintenance practices after two more sections of emergency lighting wiring in one of its jumbo jets were found to be crudely repaired using staples.
The airline’s engineering union contacted the Civil Aviation Safety Authority yesterday and reported that the additional staples and another wiring irregularity had been found over the weekend.
The airline discovered more than two weeks ago that wiring in two of five sections of emergency lighting on the same plane had been repaired by stapling them together. The emergency lighting is an essential safety feature meant to guide passengers out of the aircraft in the event of a crash at night or if the cabin fills with smoke.
The staples have now been found in four of the five sections but it is unclear who did the stapling.
The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association believes the staples were used to repair the plane while it underwent heavy maintenance in Singapore, but the Singapore Airlines Engineering Company, which carried out the maintenance, angrily denies this. ALAEA is equally as forceful in its denials that the repair work was done in Australia.
Qantas initially indicated that it had addressed the issue with the Singaporeans but last night said the investigation was still in progress. Qantas head of engineering David Cox said the airline had shortened the frequency of functional tests on the emergency lighting system from the manufacturer’s recommended six weeks to two days.
He said the airline was continuing to inspect its aircraft so it could be sure it got everything.
“We’re dealing with this as a quality issue, not a safety issue,” he said. “So we’re working through a rigorous and aggressive program of inspections and follow-up checks so we can be sure.”
CASA was also unable to shed any light on who was responsible for the staples but said yesterday it was “comfortable” with the airline’s handling of the issue.
CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said the authority had allowed Qantas to continue flying the aircraft with some of the wiring still stapled after the airline agreed to regular checks to ensure the emergency lighting was still working.
Mr Gibson said the stapled wiring was in a 12-volt system and it was not considered a safety of flight issue.
“Qantas has its quality assurance systems in place to check that everything’s running properly and when mistakes are made, to identify those and rectify them,” he said. “Basically we’re satisfied that Qantas is doing that successfully. In other words, there’s no reason for us to step in.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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