British Airways News, 6th May
Since British airspace reopened BA has inspected each aircraft before every flight and the company has carried out airframe and engine inspections on 23 aircraft.
These have included internal inspections of the engines based on guidance from the engine
manufacturers looking for any evidence of a build-up of volcanic ash.
Filters from the oil and fuel system were removed and sent away for scientific analysis for any volcanic trace elements, while a detailed inspection of the airframe was carried out looking for typical signs of erosion and build up of any debris within air conditioning and other aircraft systems.
“Working with other airlines across Europe we have completed sample inspections
on an additional 24 engines as part of a programme agreed with the enginemanufacturers,” said quality services manager Keith Rose.
“All of our inspections to date, plus in excess of 2,000 engineering walk rounds
checks, have not found any confirmed indications of volcanic ash.
“Indeed samples taken from the exhausts of a number of engines have been analysed
by specialists at Bristol University and found to contain no traces of ash whatsoever.
Since resumption of our operation last week we have flown over 27,000 flying hours and 6500
sectors with no confirmed ash events
The above statement is copied from today's issue of the BA company newspaper.
Last edited by Tagron; 7th May 2010 at 09:31.
Reason: Attempt to improve formatting of copied newsitem