Second jet has wing problem

By NAOMI LARKIN, PAUL YANDALL and CHRIS DANIELS

Air New Zealand is defending its safety record after the grounding of two of its jets. A part fell off one and a stuck wing flap forced an Ansett plane to turn back midair.

One day after the 5kg wing part from Air NZ Flight 102 smashed through the roof of a Mangere warehouse, the airline's subsidiary, Ansett Australia, grounded a Boeing 767 when the wing flaps failed to retract after takeoff from Coolangatta airport en route to Victoria on Sunday.

Ansett said last night that it hoped to have its 767 back in the air today.

Air NZ group chief executive Gary Toomey said yesterday that the two incidents were not linked.

"Unfortunately, these things occur, and I don't think it reflects at all on the safety of the airline," he said at a press conference to announce that Air NZ would increase its regional domestic services, creating around 100 jobs, mostly for former Qantas NZ staff made redundant when the airline collapsed last month.

The new services will link the smaller centres of Invercargill, Dunedin, Queenstown, Rotorua and Hamilton with Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and will use some of the jets formerly flown by Qantas NZ.

The Ansett plane was one of the airline's 10 767s which were grounded last month for compulsory checks amid a string of embarrassing safety gaffes. Engineers found cracks in engine mounts on at least three of the planes, and another flew eight times with none of its emergency escape chutes working.

Siobhan Dooley, spokeswoman for Ansett Australia, said the company was "absolutely" confident all the 767s were fit to fly, and this incident was unrelated to last month's groundings.

"It's a problem that happened after that."

The Air NZ 767-300 which shed the 5kg chunk of metal as it was approaching Auckland International Airport on Saturday afternoon remained grounded last night as the company waited for a part from the United States.

The piece of titanium alloy track, which holds the wing flaps in place once they have been extended for landing, narrowly missed shoppers when it plunged through the warehouse roof.

Air NZ spokesman Cameron Hill said there was still no indication of what caused the piece to fall.

The part was first seen dangling under the wing by a passenger as the plane landed in Sydney on Saturday. The passenger alerted the crew and Qantas Australia engineers, who are contracted to service Air NZ aircraft in Sydney, checked the plane but found nothing amiss.

Tim Burfoot, chief investigator of accidents for the Transport Accident Investigation Commission, which is carrying out an inquiry into the incident, said yesterday that it was rare for parts to fall off planes.

"Bits aren't supposed to fall off aircraft. I can't recall of one [investigation] we've done in recent years."

The commission would work with its Australian counterpart on the investigation, which was likely to take a number of weeks.

Qantas yesterday moved to distance itself from the problem.

Spokesman Des Sullivan said the aircraft was given "a comprehensive inspection" after a request from Air NZ.

This included extending the wing flaps, which was not normally part of a transit inspection.

"By engaging the flaps you are trying to recreate what happens in flight. We extended their position and found no fault."

New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Martyn Gosling said there was no suggestion of a pattern of failure or that the part was highly suspect. No punitive action would be taken against Air NZ.

"Very occasionally, pieces fall off an aeroplane. When it does, you don't clout the airline over the head and say, 'Here's a fine' - that's not the way to achieve aviation safety."

Mr Gosling said an engineer from the authority completed a review of Air NZ's maintenance programme
yesterday and gave it the all-clear.

A Boeing spokeswoman in Seattle, Susan Bradley, said the company was waiting for a report from Air NZ and Ansett before deciding what action, if any, it would take.

Yesterday's announcement by Air NZ that it would start flying the Ansett NZ Whisper Jets is widely seen as a plan B attempt to keep the initiative against arch-rival Qantas. The Australian giant is expected to announce today a comprehensive domestic service, in partnership with regional airline Origin Pacific.

Air NZ spokesman David Beatson told the Herald 10 days ago that "it did not make sense" to fly the Whisper Jets in this country.

Industry sources say Qantas and Origin will fly key tourist routes with planes formerly leased to Qantas NZ.

Origin is believed to have leased the five Dash-8 turboprop aircraft to service Queenstown and Rotorua, as well as the Wellington-Christchurch route.

The earliest the Whisper Jets can take paying passengers is in four weeks, assuming that safety and regulatory criteria are met.

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