Is this fellow one of our guardians of public safety?
Just heard him talking at length on BBC News. Very sadly for him, because I am sure he considers himself a nice knowledgeable sort of chap, this morning he sounded like a poor example of a spin doctor caught in the beam of someone's headlights, but one paid to spin regardless. NB I said "sounded like".
I think he wanted us to know that an AD was issued long since, which apparently bounds operations in such a way as to keep the gremlins at bay whilst Boeing and RR flush them out.
He also seemed to be wanting us to know that suggestions of grounding were obviously groundless since NTSB and others had not ordered it. I guess that means grounding is off his menu, or we can whistle for it.
I see he talks a lot for EASA (and the following was from an article about Helios but I make no apology for that):
From The International Herald Tribune
By Nicola Clark and Heather Timmons
Wednesday, April 23, 2008:Hoeltgen said there had been a number of cases in recent years where either a national regulator or an airline had been found to be not in compliance with EASA directives, though he declined to cite specific examples.
"In these cases, it has been up to the member state authority to design corrective action," he said. "They also have to convince us that this has been done properly."
Out of general interest, was there, or has there now been an EASA directive applying in this case? Would EASA be the authority ultimately responsible for any decision on grounding European airline Trent engined 777s?
What proportion of the Trent engine 777 fleet is directly under auspices of EASA?