Top News
Most Read
Most E-mailed
E-mail Article
Print Article
Catalogue of safety failures found over BA planes
SAFETY on British Airways flights has been called into question after air accident investigators found "systemic" problems with the fleet's jets.
Following inquiries into four mid-air failures, the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), the aviation watchdog, warns that safety problems may be "widespread within the organisation" and substandard working practices are commonplace among maintenance staff.
The criticism provides a sharp contrast to BA's reputation as one of the best maintained fleets in the world.
The catalogue of safety failures compiled by the AAIB includes: a door ripping off a Boeing 777 at 6000ft which gouged the fuselage after maintenance engineers had failed to check it was shut properly; fuel pouring from a hole in a jet's fuel tank soon after take-off from Heathrow after the screws and cap to plug the hole had been removed and left inside the tank; a Boeing 757 that responded abnormally to flight controls after two of its wing panels were left in a hangar; and a Boeing 757 which had been over-filled with oil that had to be landed by pilots wearing oxygen masks.
The AAIB's reservations over BA's maintenance procedures are crystallised in a report on the Boeing 757which took off in September 2003 without two wing panels. The flight from Heathrow to Paris suffered oil fumes in the cabin after engine oil had been serviced incorrectly, and was aborted.
However, once the pilot had disengaged the autopilot to land, the craft began drifting to the right, forcing him to take corrective action.
The AAIB highlights similar failures with the BA flight from Gatwick to Antigua in June of the same year, when the craft lost an under-wing maintenance door in mid-flight.
