Airlink Jetstreams Grounded As Of Tonight

[CALCULATOR]

Rumour has it - and again - I stress it is only rumour - that all Jetstream 41 aircraft belonging to the Airlink fleet have been recalled to ORT tonight with immediate effect. This includes all Jetstreams at outstations such as Cape Town, PE, Durban and where ever applicable. Apparently as we speak CAA are at Airlink Ops.

Rumour also has it that this is due to a possible engine failure / incident today.

Again, this has only partially been verified by a 3rd party, namely one of the Airlink crew.

Watch this space!!

[eish]

I suspect that it's linked to the J41 24 Sep 09 accident's prelim report.

See Gyro Nut's post

[Goffel]

Yes,,,what a bummer.....they are grounded.....I hope they survivre this.

[ab33t]

The issue with seal has been going on for a number of years , lets hope this gets sorted.

[CALCULATOR]

The grounding of 14 Jetstream 41's has just been confirmed by E news. A CAA representative refers to an engine smoke related incident earlier today. Does anybody know where this happened or have more info?

[Goldfish Jack]

Apparantly the smoke came from the engine :ugh:

Hope they manage to get this one sorted out - it does not look good when one reads the interim report - it seems components are failing well before their component useful life and the CAA is putting pressure on the FAA to address this with Honeywell

Better forewarned and forearmed than another incident

[dash431]

Aircraft components will continue to fail for as long as they adhere to the laws of physics. Engineers do their level best during the design phase to predict failure anomallies, and through testing, try and prove their assumptions. Unfortunately, they cant control the component once it leaves the factory. The components then have to prove themselves in the real world where all those unforseen, and unexpected variables will start to have an effect on the components service life.

It is for this reason that aircrew are required to do emergency and procedural competency training. Which brings me to my question: How could this have happened?! I can sort of understand if it was a single pilot in a heavily laden piston twin, in bad weather, but this just doesnt make sense!? How could this have happened? Was their training flawed? And, what can be done to prevent this from happening again?

[Avi8tor]

Its a pity, the aircraft has proven itself as being a great workhorse for the last 15 yrs nearly. I hate to be the one for doom and gloom at this time of the yr, but I think the end is naai for Airlink....wait, thats not right....:):)

[titaniumspoon]

Roger, YOU and only YOU are responsible for appointing JVJ!
The cost cutting has resulted in this now.
1) An airline pilot needs a certain minimum level of experience and qualification to be a captain and first officer by law. NOWHERE in the world do you operate close to the legal minimums, only at Link YOU do! After all, you can say to all that you are within the law!
Why? You can make more money. Low time and inexperienced pilots are CHEAPER! Well now, well done Roger! You knew better didn't you?
:D:D:D:D

[toolowterrainpullup]

So much for cost savings! The short sighted approach will now cost Airlink employees and families their livelihoods. I point a finger at RF and JVJ.:mad:

I echo the call to RF: Why did you appoint JVJ with a known, suspect, track record?

[120y]

Just want to mention , its not only Airlink J41's ....its worldwide . Honeywell who is the manufacturer of the "seals" oand the aircraft manufacturer BAE Systems must find a remedy and implement it on the J41's.
Only they can do the selection, instalation and maitenance of teh turbine seal plate.
More on Busniss news

[putt for dough]

Todays "star" reported that yesterdays aborted takeoff was in Nelspruit.

[Selfloader]

Titan have to agree on levels of experience. Less experienced pilots are willing to fly for lower pay than those who have done the time. If one reads the prelim report on the positioning flight to PMB from DBN it is clear that the wrong engine was shut down. The PIC was involved in a similar incident just a year or two earlier. Now does that speak to training (which is expensive) or to experience (which does not come cheap). Once again, follow the money, and you'll find the problem.

[Carrier]

This ban applies to the J41. Does the same design feature exist on the J31 and J32? If so, should they also be grounded?

[FlyItLikeARental]

Apparently this problem is with the TPE 331-14/15, dunno which one is on the JS-41, but the big Garrett. Those turbine seals are not lasting as they should. For once I think link did the right thing by pulling the '41s from service, especially over this period where the schedule is not too demanding, so they can get those motors inspected/fixed. As was mentioned before it seems to be a problem with the motors themselves, not link this time round. Management should still be made to walk the f$%^ing plank though. :}

[Flyer14]

If they were, they would be if they were flown by Link pilots, wouldn't they?
Merry Christmas.....

What are you trying to imply about Link pilots????

[ThatsThat]

Der Absolute Hammer; Your wit is dim, and in poor taste.

[Der absolute Hammer]

So as not to upset anyone and although no insult was intended to any flyers but only the plays upon the words-I can see on reading the posts again how it might cause upset to certain pilots-so, although a polite objection would have been more seasonal - I will give the dim witted the benefit of misinterpretive doubt and have removed the posts......
In the spirit of Christmas cheer of course--and peace to all men---!

[Cousin it.]

Next time you airlink boys decide to talk the talk you should have an idea how to walk the walk

What exactly do you mean by this statement???:hmm::hmm:

[mad_jock]

Just a quick question from a european.

Are all the air link machines water methol kitted.

[Just a job]

I speak under correction as a past Airlink J41 driver (it was a while ago) but I think there were about 3 or 4 that did`nt have water meth which were based at the coastal stations-DBN,CT and PE with one hanging around JHB as a spare (in summer anyhow).I think they were the machines they got from Australia.

[mad_jock]

cheers for that.

I was chatting to our line engineer about it today.

The hub cracking was a problem in SA but never reared its head up our way.

And now this seal problem which again doesn't seem to be an issue.

The only differences in the machines I could think of was that the SA machines where water meth which we don't have fitted in our colder/ low density alt enviroment. I presume they are all 1650's?

BTW what would you guys consider to be a sensible number of hours to be sitting in either the LHS or RHS seat of a J41?

[Wagw370]

The airlink J41 registrations NRE to NRM(Durban crash) were all 1650 SHP with water meth injection.There was 1 added later to the fleet (IIRC) registration OEX also with water meth.The others OMS.OMZ etc ,I dont recall the registrations were not water meth equipped.A long time since I flew those J41,s:ouch:

[Roving Tech]

If I remember correctly NRE and NRF originally did not have watermeth installed when they were delivered. The next aircraft had some pieces installed at the factory and then every delivery after that a bit more each time. The last few aircraft were delivered fully equipped. The factory sent out a team to complete the instalations on the aircraft