View Full Version : Olympic Airways used defective leased 737
nessim
12th Sep 2008, 19:52
"An Olympic Airlines plane was flying for ten days with serious technical problems that could have put passengers' safety at risk, it was revealed yesterday."
http://media2.feed.gr/filesystem/images/20080911/low/assets_LARGE_t_420_1626890.JPG
As in photo above after inspection a steel cable was found broken, other cables (flaps, spoilers control) severely battered, also "inexplicable" rust.
A 1991 build 737-400 was dry leased for 4 years, ($200,000 monthly). Olympic used it (SX-BLD) from Aug 24 til Sep 5, then after pilots reported "heavy controls", aircraft grounded in Athens.
The aircraft (ex AirAsia) underwent some heavy maintenance at a technical center in Singapore (C-Check) just before lease.
OA management said that its own engineers, who inspected the aircraft should have detected the problem.
Engineers' spokeman says they just had just to check papers from Singapore that works have been completed, and that it was "a very dangerous combination of faults".
Local newspaper "Ethnos" revealed the story.
nessim
12th Sep 2008, 20:13
Dispute exist between goverments (all) and unions as they opose closedown or downsize of "national carrier".
There is a long "tradition" of leased wrecks as the ones from HOLA that was recently returned after pilots reaction.
fix767
13th Sep 2008, 05:58
A 1991 build 737-400 was dry leased for 4 years, ($200,000 monthly). Olympic used it (SX-BLD) from Aug 24 til Sep 5, then pilots reported "heavy controls", aircraft grounded in Athens.
I'm just questioning if SX-BLD is a -300 or a -400. Info from Olympic Airlines Wiki.
Boeing 737-300 (http://wiki.healthhaven.com/Boeing_737-300)4Short and Medium haul
Domestic, Europe and Middle EastEC-JTV, EC-KHI, SX-BLC, SX-BLDtwo aircraft are leased from Hola Airlines (http://wiki.healthhaven.com/Hola_Airlines)Boeing 737-400 (http://wiki.healthhaven.com/Boeing_737-400)15150Short and Medium haul
Domestic, Europe and Middle EastSX-BKA / BKB / BKC / BKD / BKE / BKF / BKG / BKH / BKI / BKM / BKN / BKT / BKU / BKX / BMC7 owned by O.A. (BKA-BKG),
4 leased from ILFC (http://wiki.healthhaven.com/ILFC) (BKH-BKI, BKN, BKT),
1 leased from Aviation Capital Group (BKM),
1 leased from Oasis International Leasing (BMC)
quickturnaround
13th Sep 2008, 08:35
It is about time that you guys start flying the NG. Many of your acft are so bloody worn out......
satos
13th Sep 2008, 11:23
Qantas has being having the same problems with maintenance carried out in Singapore.
As the saying goes 'paying cheap is not always the best maintenance'.The airline bosses never seem to realize that.
Yamagata ken
13th Sep 2008, 11:47
Qantas is not having any problems with planes serviced in Singapore. Qantas is having problems with disaffected Australians having their jobs outsourced. There`s a difference.
satos
14th Sep 2008, 05:13
You are entitled to your opinion my friend but in many cases the facts are when a Qantas aircraft returns from singapore after undergoing maintenance, it is layed up in a hanger for up to a week to get defects fixed which should either have been picked up or rectified in singapore.
The end result is the Aussie engineers are highly trained and skilled and we don't turn a blind eye to defects.
BrissySparkyCoit
14th Sep 2008, 10:57
Qantas is not having any problems with planes serviced in Singapore. Qantas is having problems with disaffected Australians having their jobs outsourced. There`s a difference.
Wrong. Try again.
Yamagata ken
14th Sep 2008, 15:12
Erm... This SLF prefers Singapore to Qantas, given the chance.
I'm not entirely convinced that Qantas' maintenance standards are greater than Singapore. I've seen the elf and safety card played enough to recognise self-serving when it happens.
Contractor1
27th Mar 2009, 19:43
I am currently working on Sx-bld,she need a lot of work,flaps tracks, mlg supports,vertical fin and lots of corrosion, can anyone tel me who is paying for it all, is it insurance or owner? for the recorded never send a plane to Singapore for maintenance, it's the accounts trying to save money they didn't save much this time:D
Touch'n'oops
28th Mar 2009, 23:54
BTW it is a -300, as AirAsia has never operated -400s.
Not surprised AirAsia battered the bloody thing. Number of times I've had Captains call for flap positions well above their Max speed. :D
Well clear of them now. Therefore safe!
Only a GA example, but..........
I bought a light twin in Oz and brought it to Singapore a few years back. It had been operated RPT in Oz.
Engineers in Singapore found some interesting and unsafe maintenance issues......
Operated for three years in Singapore and then brought it back to Europe, engineers here found some "very" interesting maintenance issues which dated both to its Oz and Sin maintenance........:eek: (a small example, how about installing a brand new engine from the factory on to a heavily corroded engine mount without asking the owner if he would like it to be repaired !)
Oddly enough, the company which maintained it in Sin was a big Australian name......
However, I once approached the Singaporean organisation across the other side of the airfield at Seletar that does the 737, C130, helicopter and Youth Flying Club maintenance for a comparison with the Ozzie one maintaining mine and after some discussions decided that a change would not be an improvement despite the challenges that I was already experiencing :ouch:.
Draw your own conclusions, I hesitate to offer any :*
ecureilx
31st Mar 2009, 05:39
Errr .. to clarify something.
"Singapore" is not one company doing aircraft maintenance.
The maintenance is done by a lot of companies, some of which are local operations of large overseas groups, and the staff get paid similar amounts to what they get paid when they are in US or UK !
As for "CHEAP LABOR" I had experience with some of the Fedex MD-11 maintenance done by the Local contractor and every time the Fedex guys offered the local engineers a job offer in Memphis, the local engineers smiled and said that they get similar pay here and the local employers take care of the staff.
If you want to believe my friends in Fedex, if you want cheap labor - try Taiwan or Philippines. Or even HK!
If I am not mistaken, some of the the B737 maintenance for aircraft coming off lease from AK were inspected and maintained in Seletar. Not sure who are the actual operators there.
Over and out
It may come as a surprise to some but SQ do the absolute minimum amount of work on their a/c. Some purchasers of SQ a/c are quite surprised by what they find behind the scene.
Dungdang
31st Mar 2009, 10:56
And SQ has no problem with that because they have one of the youngest fleets... So they calculate in doing the absolute minimum and perhaps pushing a more than average troublesome plane into the secondhand market...
anemos
2nd Apr 2009, 15:27
olympic has now a new owner so probable will get rid of those wreks as soon as practical :D.the surprise is that the olympic maintenance center used to be one of the best and the personel really experienced.they had to inspect what they received from heavy maintainance,the actual plane not the papers...:=Anyway good luck to the company and to the employees :ok:.it is very sad to watch an excellent and saccessful operator becoming unsafe.
.
Aerofoil
2nd Apr 2009, 16:09
Who is the new owner of Olympic?
lporiazis
2nd Apr 2009, 20:13
Quoting Anemos:
they had to inspect what they received from heavy maintainance,the actual plane not the papers...:=Anyway good luck to the company and to the employees http://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/thumbs.gif.it is very sad to watch an excellent and saccessful operator becoming unsafe."
Well imagine if every airline had to re-inspect the aircraft they just received from an approved maintenance organization! Ok guys, lets do the D-check again just to see if they have completed the job... Brilliant idea!
I am sure that other "safe" airlines would have the aircraft flying as it was delivered. The documents state that the job was done, therefore even if the plane is lost, the operator would get away with it. The maintenance company would be at fault.
Just for info, it was the Olympic Airways - Services maintenance personnel that discovered the extend of the "maintenance fraud" on this particular aircraft, after pilots reports of heavy controls plus some other finding.
It was these guys that suspected that the work was done only by paperwork and started inspecting the aircraft for other discrepancies. :D
Now it is safe that passengers will not have to fly in this flying junk.
Sorry for the aggressive reply, but I am one of the maintenance guys of Olympic and I am really sad reading such statements and also very angry watching the Governments of the past 20 years managing this carrier in the worst possible manner.
Leon