Air scare prompts safety check

Photo / Brett Phibbs

Air New Zealand will this morning study an Australian civil aviation safety directive to rival Qantas before deciding whether oxygen bottles in its Boeing 747s need special attention.

Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority has ordered Qantas to make urgent inspections of every oxygen bottle on its 30-strong fleet of 747s after a mid-air explosion forced one of them to make an emergency landing in the Philippines on Friday.

Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said Qantas would check all oxygen containers and the brackets holding them, starting today. "It will be a visual inspection and it is a precautionary step. The inspection will take a couple of hours for each plane so it will take a few days to do them all."

The authority is investigating whether an exploding oxygen container was responsible for ripping a jagged hole in the fuselage of flight QF30 from London to Melbourne.

New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority says it will wait to see what emerges from the Australian checks before deciding whether any action is needed on this side of the Tasman.

Spokesman Bill Sommer noted that each airline had its own maintenance regime, and he was confident oxygen bottles on Air New Zealand's eight Boeing 747s would be checked regularly on a routine basis.

Air New Zealand public affairs chief Mike Tod said the airline had yet to receive a copy of the Australian safety authority directive but would "be following up with them first thing tomorrow [today] before making a decision on any action we may need to take".

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AGENCIES