Qantas Won't Send Airplanes to Malaysia for Maintenance Checks

By Laura Cochrane
Bloomberg.com
Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Qantas Airways Ltd., the Australian carrier whose maintenance operation is under review by the nation's aviation regulator, has dropped an option to send two airplanes to Malaysia for maintenance servicing.

Malaysian Airline System Bhd. issued a statement yesterday defending its work and said Australian media reports of a ``string of faults'' on a Qantas plane it had checked were unsubstantiated.

Australia's largest airline won't send two Boeing Co. 737- 400 planes to Malaysia for heavy maintenance checks after space became available for the work at its Tullamarine facility in Melbourne, according to David Cox, Qantas's executive general manager of engineering. ``Qantas only has overflow heavy maintenance work undertaken overseas,'' he said today in a statement to Bloomberg.

Qantas's decision to send planes to Malaysia was scrutinized after the first aircraft sent there two months ago came back with a list of defects, the Sydney Morning Herald reported today, without citing anyone. The plane was grounded in Melbourne on Aug. 7 because of noise from an air-conditioning fault, it said.

Kristy McSweeney, a spokeswoman for Qantas, declined to comment today on the Herald claim of defects. The issue with the air-conditioning on that plane was not related to the maintenance check overseas, she said in a telephone interview.

Malaysian Airline said in a statement that Qantas had 12 of its own engineers oversee the checks in Malaysia.

'Standards Observed'
``All the highlights were rectified, to the satisfaction of the Qantas team, before aircraft delivery to Australia,'' Mohd Roslan Ismail, Malaysia Airline's senior general manager of engineering and maintenance, said in the statement. ``The maintenance standards of Qantas were strictly observed.''

Malaysian Airline's engineering and maintenance division is certified for repair and maintenance by the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation, European Aviation Safety Agency and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, Roslan said.

Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority is reviewing Qantas's maintenance operations after an incident July 25 when an aircraft made an emergency landing in Manila because part of its fuselage came off at 29,000 feet (8,800 meters).

More Qantas flights have been disrupted in the past two weeks, threatening to undermine Qantas's reputation as having one of the industry's best safety records. None of the incidents are related to planes checked in Malaysia.

Doors Jam
An aircraft bound for Melbourne returned to Adelaide on July 28 after its rear landing-gear doors failed to close following takeoff. A Philippines-bound flight was forced to return to Sydney soon after takeoff on Aug. 2 after a fluid leak in a wing.

Yesterday, a Qantas flight was prevented from flying to Los Angeles because a screw needed to be replaced, the Herald reported today. The aviation authority is reviewing Qantas's maintenance operations and additional safety checks over a two- week period from Aug. 3.

Qantas, Asia's third-largest airline, remains among the safest airlines in the world, outgoing Chief Executive Officer Geoff Dixon said Aug. 4. The carrier, founded in the Queensland outback in 1920, has never had a fatal aircraft accident.

FMI: Bloomberg

Comments

[Neutral Party]

This is how the media reports anyway, always making reference to Malaysia, for ALL Qantas aircraft incidents.

Does anyone know that the Qantas engineering teams are not in favour of such MRO work being done overseas at lower costs?

Simply because they feel threatened that their jobs will become redundant at home.

Whoever wants to claim that Qantas aircraft earlier did not have any engineering related problems during flight operations must be real ignorant.

Its just that previously as well as now, such operational glitches are detected but the difference is the current incidents seem to make their way to the media! Who could be sharing such information with the media? Your guess is as good as mine!

Have you seen the news reports where the engineers of Qantas want the management to speak to them now and review the outsourcing of the MRO works - after a few aircraft were found to have engineering defects (not just the one that was sent to Malaysia)?

So, whats the issue?
Who looked after the maintenance of the other aircraft that were found to have problems?

Why outsourcing is always blamed for work done in Australia?

Is someone using the media to shape up opinions for an unfair advantage?

Anyone cares to answer?

[rafi kamis]

It was not a fault of Malaysian Engineering team as those planes maintained in malaysia did not involved in those problems.

I guess Qantas needs to look to the maintanence records of their plane and who actually did for them that causes those problems.