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View Full Version : Cathay Fuel Leak cause - poor maintenance?


stickyb
5th Dec 2004, 08:19
In an article reported in todays SCP, "Cathay Pacific confirmed it had adjusted fuel-line clips on 27 out of 96 engines. The airline's investigation found that the P-shaped clip's position was the main reason fuel leaked from the number 4 engine shortly after flight CX251 left Hong Kong for London on September 5th.
A spokeswoman for Cathay Pacific said the clips had been placed incorrectly, causing cracks in the fuel line. She said the airline had checked all 96 clips and found 27 had to be refitted."

M.Mouse
5th Dec 2004, 09:27
Your thread title is as provocative as it is meaningless.

From my understanding CX maintenance is of the highest standards, among most other leading airlines.

If a mistake was made it has been rectified. Oh that we lived in a perfect world. You obviously do.

Load Toad
5th Dec 2004, 09:35
A bit touchy heh M.Mouse?

If the spokesperson was correctly quoted the cause of the cracked pipe was an incorrectly fitted widget. So who fits the widgets? If they were the correct part put fitted incorrectly is that or is that not 'poor maintainence'?
Obviously it may be an isolated case but...and here is the darn funny thing...it's those isolated instances where 27/96 widgets are fitted incorrectly that might just cause something serious.
What was provocative in the post title or content?

mr Q
5th Dec 2004, 10:11
PROVOCATIVE ?? MEANINGLESS ??
Have we been reading the same post M Mouse ??
Relevant, concise, questioning and somewhat disturbing are words I would use to describe the content..........

spannersatcx
5th Dec 2004, 11:33
I don't know the in's and out's of the p-clip and fuel line in question. If it is indeed on the engine then the cause of concern would be with the engine overhaulers rather than CX maintenance itself. Remember CX Engineering is primarily outport/line station Maintenance. Maintenance in HKG is done by a 3rd party agent!

You have to admit that the way the title is written was indeed to provoke a reaction as that is what it has achieved. But then again when you are one of the worlds best you are always going to be in the spot light. :D

matkat
5th Dec 2004, 11:51
It may well be that either the maintenance manual/and or I.P.C. were incorrect,but the post IMHO means direct maintenance,but I would hazard to guess that this is a procedural error and not as stated poor maintenance.

stickyb
5th Dec 2004, 12:01
Well, my apologies if i said the wrong thing in the title.
Analysing the words, as some of you seem to want to do:


Cathay Fuel Leak cause Totally factual and from the words of the newspaper report and apparently the spokeswoman herself.

poor maintenance? Note I put in a question mark as I was asking if that were the case.

I am not a journo (would hardly be starting a post from an already half day old newspaper article) nor am I an anorak (at least not on the aviation scene)

Mr @ Spotty M
5th Dec 2004, 13:30
First and foremost the responsibility of all the Maintenance on Cathay Pacific aircraft lies with the airline and it is the same for the day to day operations, which includes handling etc.
Now nobody has yet asked the question, were the “P” Clips fitted incorrectly at engine build by Rolls Royce and if so, we are all barking up the wrong tree.
These things happen with highly complicated pieces of engineering and will always happen to even the best of us.

spannersatcx
5th Dec 2004, 16:49
If it is indeed on the engine then the cause of concern would be with the engine overhaulers Already asked!

ukeng
5th Dec 2004, 17:44
Blimey aren't you lot touchy?
It isn't just Cathy (sic) with this problem. We've all been alerted to the possible problem.
Not poor maintenance, just one of those designs which hadn't caused a problem for years, has now and has been quickly rectified.

SnapOff
5th Dec 2004, 20:18
GE CF6's had a similar problem last year. I don't recall any posts over that incident and subsequent fleet check. Just because a p-clip chaffed through a pipe it does not mean to say it was poor maintenance. There are problems every day on aircraft which are due to any number of problems. If they have found that many engines with the same problem I would think it is more a design problem than poor maint, unless one man has been very, very busy or all the engineers at CX are poor, which I personally seriously doubt. I believe after most incidents it is also quite often quoted around here to await the official report and not jump to conclusions on a preliminary report, especialy one from the press (South China Post?).