Air New Zealand has no plans to carry out any extra safety checks on the landing gear of its fleet of Airbus A320s, after the same type of plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles yesterday.
A JetBlue airliner with 146 people aboard made an emergency
landing at Los Angeles International Airport, after discovering its front wheels were stuck in a sideways position.
The plane circled for three hours to burn off fuel before landing safely.
A similar incident involving another Airbus A320 occurred in February 1999, and the National Transportation Safety Board found then that there had been three previous such incidents.
The Air New Zealand group has 12 Airbus 320s, spokesman Mike Tod told NZPA this morning -- nine operated by Air New Zealand and three by Freedom Air.
He said there were no plans for any special safety checks after yesterday's dramatic scenes, which were played out on live television.
"We're very happy with our aircraft," he said.
Yesterday's incident was being investigated and the airline would wait for any directive from Airbus.
Airbus spokeswoman Mary Anne Greczyn said jets by other manufacturers had experienced similar problems.
"This has happened with just about every make and model of aircraft that is out there," she said.
- NZPA REUTERS
