OZschwitz: Statist aviation watchdog accused of cover-up

THE air safety watchdog has been accused of covering up serious maintenance breaches by Qantas after aircraft engineers claimed that warnings about several incidents were ignored.

In one incident, 10 mandatory checks on a Qantas 767 jet that had flown through severe turbulence were put off to a later date and the plane cleared to fly.

And in another incident a Qantas Boeing 747 had all four of its engines incorrectly mounted during a service in Hong Kong and was allowed to fly for a month before the error was discovered.

But Qantas operations chief Lyell Strambi said yesterday the issues were being distorted by the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association as part of an "ill-defined industrial agenda".

"Safety and compliance are our number one priorities. We meet, and in many cases exceed, all of our obligations to all regulators," he said.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority added: "These issues were investigated at the time and properly dealt with."

But Steve Purvinas, the federal secretary of Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association, said: "The [association] has written countless letters to CASA in the past 18 months seeking answers to many alleged breaches of air legislation by Qantas. The only responses we receive are nice letters with fancy words that effectively mean the cheque is in the mail."

He said a Boeing 767 that landed in Cairns last June after flying through severe turbulence was allowed to fly again after a string of mandatory tests were deferred until its next scheduled service. "Time and equipment restraints" were given as the reason for the lapse in protocol.

LNK

OZschwitz: Statist aviation watchdog accused of cover-up

OZschwitz: Statist aviation watchdog accused of cover-up

Anarcho-Capitalist Non-Miscellaneous

AnCaps With FreeStyle Miscellaneous