Ansett Grounds Boeing 767 Fleet

The Air New Zealand - Ansett Australia Group will comply with the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority decision to ground the Ansett Boeing 767 aircraft but disputes CASA's view that confidence in the safety of the B767 aircraft and the quality of maintenance work at ANNZES cannot be sustained, the Group's President and CEO Gary Toomey said today.

"We deeply regret that such a serious step has been necessary and apologise to everyone that is affected by the grounding of our B767 aircraft. We will do our very best to ensure that everyone booked to travel with us will safely get to their destinations

"We are determined to address concerns held by CASA, to work with them to get our grounded aircraft back into service, to demonstrate to CASA that the quality of the practices and processes we have put in place at ANNZES justifies continuing confidence, and to have Ansett emerge from this unhappy process as one of the safest airlines in the world.

"Ever since the Group's new management started moving into place towards the end of last year, we have been giving high priority to a comprehensive review of Ansett engineering and maintenance operations and practices

"Each one of the major issues with the maintenance of Ansett's B767 fleet that has emerged since just before last Christmas has been identified and reported by us to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority - not the other way round.

"Last December, almost on day one of Ansett Air New Zealand Engineering Services' establishment as an integrated business last December, the new management team found out that important checks on a component of the tail structure of Ansett's B767 aircraft were months overdue. The team grounded the aircraft concerned, advised CASA, and carried out the work that was required as soon as they heard of the problem.

"From that point on, we have been working closely with CASA and Boeing to review and improve the effectiveness of our maintenance and safety management processes. We will continue to do so until each one of us is satisfied that we have done everything possible to eliminate the risk that the problems we've experienced will re-occur.

"Immediately after the Christmas incident, we initiated checks on all airworthiness directives and safety-related service bulletins from the manufacturers applying to our aircraft to see if there were other oversights.

"Shortly after this, we discovered that another B767 aircraft had been fitted with an incorrect wing flap component. Again, we grounded the aircraft, advised CASA, and fixed the problem.

"Most recently, the same checking process identified another set of manufacturer's recommendations delivered in March last year that had not been actioned. We consulted the manufacturer, agreed an immediate fix and advised CASA of the situation.

"We have just completed the checks on all airworthiness directives and we expect to complete our checks to verify compliance with all manufacturers' alert service bulletin applying to the Ansett fleet by the end of this week.

"We also put in place a new triple-check process to ensure that we have received each airworthiness directive and manufacturers' recommendation applying to our aircraft, have them logged them into our maintenance planning process, and undertake the work required on time.

"As a result of the restructuring and the reviews we've initiated in the new ANNZES unit, a number of personnel who were previously responsible for supervising maintenance processes are no longer with the company, or are in the process of terminating their employment with us.

"We are determined to emerge from this with one of the safest operations in the airline industry," said Gary Toomey.