MUMBAI: A team of French technicians arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday to repair the Air France aircraft that encountered an engine failure on Monday. The team will also probe the presence of a chisel-like tool in the engine cowling after the flight made an emergency landing. Mumbai airport officials said the team was called to get an air-worthiness certificate, which Indian agencies cannot provide.
On Monday morning, the Air France flight, with 200 passengers on board, took-off for Paris and returned after 30 minutes due to an engine failure. On inspection after landing, a maintenance team found a chisel-like tool in the engine cowling. The tool seemed to have interfered with the engine and caused a failure.
Officials said that since the engine failure occurred only a few minutes after the take-off, it is likely that the tool interfered with the engine functioning.
"The aircraft had successfully flown on the Paris-Mumbai sector a couple of hours ago," said an official. Hence, the lapse seems to have occurred in Mumbai. "Before every take-off, basic maintenance work is carried out on every aircraft. The lapse has happened while the flight was being readied for the Mumbai-Paris leg," said a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official. Airport officials said the damage is such that it cannot be repaired by local engineers.
"The agreement with Indian agencies is for minor maintenance and repair, so a team had to be summoned from France. Also the extent of damage is major," said an airport source.
Officials said the DGCA is not authorized to give a clearance to the plane as the twin-engine aircraft, an Airbus A-300, is registered in France and will need a sanction from the French authorities. While the passengers, who were put up in a hotel after the incident, flew out on another aircraft on Tuesday morning, the snag-ridden aircraft is likely to stay grounded in Mumbai till it gets a clearance.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment