747FOCAL
1st Apr 2002, 13:03
Revealed: the most jinxed jet in Britain
Sunday Times (London) 03/31/02
AN AIRBUS plane operated by Monarch Airlines has been identified as the British passenger jet with the worst record of safety incidents. It has a history of engine malfunctions, steering faults and false crash warnings.
The A320 aircraft, used for package holiday and regular flights to Europe, has been involved in 25 safety alerts in three years ? more than three times the average.
Its troubled history has emerged in an Insight investigation that has for the first time identified the safety record of individual planes. Monarch also operates the jet that has clocked up the equal second highest number of dangerous or potentially dangerous incidents and the one that comes in fourth place.
At 2.15pm, last Friday the Monarch A320 jet, in its distinctive black and yellow livery, touched down at Luton airport. As the passengers disembarked, they looked tanned and relaxed after their holiday in Gibraltar.
The charter flight was five minutes ahead of schedule and it had a been a hassle-free journey. The weather had been fine and the congested air space above London had caused no problems.
However, as they filed off Monarch flight ZB065 the holidaymakers had unknowingly just flown on a jet with the highest number mechanical failures and problems over the past three years. G-MONX has been diverted six times and declared one mid-air emergency because of serious mechanical faults.
Bart Crotty, a former airworthiness inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States, said last week: ?Some planes just turn out to be lemons . . . Someone should perhaps be asking, ?What the hell is going on with this plane?? ? As 1.6m passengers left Britain by air this weekend, an analysis of the Civil Aviation Authority?s database of safety alerts between 1999 and 2001 shows that while many of the larger passenger jets had none, others had more than 20.
The alerts, known as mandatory occurrence reports, mainly detail mechanical problems, but also include incidents of air rage, collisions on the ground and severe turbulence. Since 1999 G-MONX has had more problems than any other large jet used by Britain?s top 10 airlines. All but two of the 25 alerts it has suffered relate to mechanical or electronic faults.
The aircraft has experienced repeated engine malfunctions, false crash alerts, steering failures and landing gear defects. Even the parking brake has broken.
In January 1999 there was suspected electrical burning on the flight. One of the pilots put on an oxygen mask as a precaution.
After taking off from the Canary Islands in July 1999, the pilot was unable to operate a wing system because of a hydraulic fault. The plane was checked by a mechanic in Lanzarote, took off again and then returned with the same fault.
The day after the hydraulic failure, the A320 left Lanzarote for the third time with a mechanical clean bill of health. Once again, it quickly aborted its flight and returned to Lanzarote with the same problem.
Two months later, the plane took off from Luton and the landing gear failed to retract. Minutes later the navigational displays also failed. The plane was again diverted.
After landing at Luton airport in January 2000 the nosewheel steering failed and the brakes started applying themselves. In a separate incident the next year, a pilot noted ?steering (failed) each time the rudder pedals were used?.
In January 2000 the engine malfunctioned because of an oil leak and started to lose power after takeoff. Anxious passengers were told their flight was being aborted because of the engine problems. Two days later, the plane took off. Once again, it returned with the same mechanical failure.
In May 2000 the engine again malfunctioned and a mid-air emergency was declared.
On February 28, 2000, the first safety flaws emerged in the plane?s crash warning systems. As the crew prepared to land in Gibraltar in hazy weather, startled passengers in the front row of seats heard an audible electronic warning: ?Pull up. Terrain. Pull up.?
The plane was in fact at a safe altitude of about 5,000ft. Cabin crew, however, reported the warnings caused ?some degree of concern? among passengers.
There were three further false alerts last year. On another approach to Gibraltar, the emergency system warned at 300ft: ?Terrain ahead (whoop whoop). Pull up.?
In the last incident, in November 2001, white smoke was seen billowing from a power unit on the plane while it was at Luton airport. Fire crews were called and the smoke was traced to an oil leak.
Crotty, who now works as an aviation consultant, said: ?There are repeating items in four or five technical areas, which suggests someone isn?t getting it right when they (try to) rectify it.?
While insurance experts estimate that flying in a commercial jet is now 50 times safer than it was in the 1950s, regulators are increasingly concerned about the number of crashes caused by maintenance error.
Safety alerts can provide vital information for regulators and passengers. Concorde had a known history of burst tyres puncturing the fuel tank before the crash in Paris in 2000 in which one of the aircraft exploded, killing all 109 people on board.
Regulators are reluctant for the British safety reports to be scrutinised publicly. The CAA last week refused to release the database, saying: ?It is not a public document.?
Insight, however, obtained access to the data and analysed more than 7,000 safety alerts on British-registered aircraft ranging from a 19-seat Gulfstream jet to a 550-seat Boeing 747.
Among the top 10 airlines, the average number of safety alerts for jets with a capacity of more than 100 passengers between 1999 and 2001 was 7.7.
The highest number of alerts was on G-MONX; second with 24 alerts was another Monarch Airlines plane, an A300, G-MONS; equal second was a British Airways A320, G-BUSE; and fourth was another Monarch A320, G-MONW.
Monarch has the highest number of average reports among the top airlines with 18.1 incidents per plane over the three-year period. Monarch says it is scrupulous about reporting all incidents and believes it may have a higher rate than other airlines because of this. It also points out that many incidents are beyond its control.
The CAA?s safety alert database logs about 50 maintenance errors a month. Some are more serious than others. On an Airtours flight leaving Gatwick on January 20, 2000, several passengers heard a bang and saw a panel fly off the plane?s engine. The plane landed safely but an investigation by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch concluded that it was ?highly probable? that a maintenance engineer had failed to secure the panel properly.
On a British Airways flight in August 1999, the flight controls ?seized solid? and the pilot had to use extreme force to free them. BA had issued an engineering order for alterations that would have prevented the mid-air emergency but had not implemented it on the Boeing 747-136 because it was due to be retired from the fleet.
The CAA said last week that it had no safety concerns about Monarch Airlines. A spokesman for Monarch said it was always striving to improve its safety procedures and that it was wrong to judge safety alerts by quantity.
Passengers arriving at Luton on G-MONX were unfazed by the aircraft?s history. Mark Omelnitskai, 27, said: ?Nothing happened on the flight to suggest it had a bad record. My attitude is that if the airline allows the plane to fly, I am happy with that.?
:)
Sunday Times (London) 03/31/02
AN AIRBUS plane operated by Monarch Airlines has been identified as the British passenger jet with the worst record of safety incidents. It has a history of engine malfunctions, steering faults and false crash warnings.
The A320 aircraft, used for package holiday and regular flights to Europe, has been involved in 25 safety alerts in three years ? more than three times the average.
Its troubled history has emerged in an Insight investigation that has for the first time identified the safety record of individual planes. Monarch also operates the jet that has clocked up the equal second highest number of dangerous or potentially dangerous incidents and the one that comes in fourth place.
At 2.15pm, last Friday the Monarch A320 jet, in its distinctive black and yellow livery, touched down at Luton airport. As the passengers disembarked, they looked tanned and relaxed after their holiday in Gibraltar.
The charter flight was five minutes ahead of schedule and it had a been a hassle-free journey. The weather had been fine and the congested air space above London had caused no problems.
However, as they filed off Monarch flight ZB065 the holidaymakers had unknowingly just flown on a jet with the highest number mechanical failures and problems over the past three years. G-MONX has been diverted six times and declared one mid-air emergency because of serious mechanical faults.
Bart Crotty, a former airworthiness inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States, said last week: ?Some planes just turn out to be lemons . . . Someone should perhaps be asking, ?What the hell is going on with this plane?? ? As 1.6m passengers left Britain by air this weekend, an analysis of the Civil Aviation Authority?s database of safety alerts between 1999 and 2001 shows that while many of the larger passenger jets had none, others had more than 20.
The alerts, known as mandatory occurrence reports, mainly detail mechanical problems, but also include incidents of air rage, collisions on the ground and severe turbulence. Since 1999 G-MONX has had more problems than any other large jet used by Britain?s top 10 airlines. All but two of the 25 alerts it has suffered relate to mechanical or electronic faults.
The aircraft has experienced repeated engine malfunctions, false crash alerts, steering failures and landing gear defects. Even the parking brake has broken.
In January 1999 there was suspected electrical burning on the flight. One of the pilots put on an oxygen mask as a precaution.
After taking off from the Canary Islands in July 1999, the pilot was unable to operate a wing system because of a hydraulic fault. The plane was checked by a mechanic in Lanzarote, took off again and then returned with the same fault.
The day after the hydraulic failure, the A320 left Lanzarote for the third time with a mechanical clean bill of health. Once again, it quickly aborted its flight and returned to Lanzarote with the same problem.
Two months later, the plane took off from Luton and the landing gear failed to retract. Minutes later the navigational displays also failed. The plane was again diverted.
After landing at Luton airport in January 2000 the nosewheel steering failed and the brakes started applying themselves. In a separate incident the next year, a pilot noted ?steering (failed) each time the rudder pedals were used?.
In January 2000 the engine malfunctioned because of an oil leak and started to lose power after takeoff. Anxious passengers were told their flight was being aborted because of the engine problems. Two days later, the plane took off. Once again, it returned with the same mechanical failure.
In May 2000 the engine again malfunctioned and a mid-air emergency was declared.
On February 28, 2000, the first safety flaws emerged in the plane?s crash warning systems. As the crew prepared to land in Gibraltar in hazy weather, startled passengers in the front row of seats heard an audible electronic warning: ?Pull up. Terrain. Pull up.?
The plane was in fact at a safe altitude of about 5,000ft. Cabin crew, however, reported the warnings caused ?some degree of concern? among passengers.
There were three further false alerts last year. On another approach to Gibraltar, the emergency system warned at 300ft: ?Terrain ahead (whoop whoop). Pull up.?
In the last incident, in November 2001, white smoke was seen billowing from a power unit on the plane while it was at Luton airport. Fire crews were called and the smoke was traced to an oil leak.
Crotty, who now works as an aviation consultant, said: ?There are repeating items in four or five technical areas, which suggests someone isn?t getting it right when they (try to) rectify it.?
While insurance experts estimate that flying in a commercial jet is now 50 times safer than it was in the 1950s, regulators are increasingly concerned about the number of crashes caused by maintenance error.
Safety alerts can provide vital information for regulators and passengers. Concorde had a known history of burst tyres puncturing the fuel tank before the crash in Paris in 2000 in which one of the aircraft exploded, killing all 109 people on board.
Regulators are reluctant for the British safety reports to be scrutinised publicly. The CAA last week refused to release the database, saying: ?It is not a public document.?
Insight, however, obtained access to the data and analysed more than 7,000 safety alerts on British-registered aircraft ranging from a 19-seat Gulfstream jet to a 550-seat Boeing 747.
Among the top 10 airlines, the average number of safety alerts for jets with a capacity of more than 100 passengers between 1999 and 2001 was 7.7.
The highest number of alerts was on G-MONX; second with 24 alerts was another Monarch Airlines plane, an A300, G-MONS; equal second was a British Airways A320, G-BUSE; and fourth was another Monarch A320, G-MONW.
Monarch has the highest number of average reports among the top airlines with 18.1 incidents per plane over the three-year period. Monarch says it is scrupulous about reporting all incidents and believes it may have a higher rate than other airlines because of this. It also points out that many incidents are beyond its control.
The CAA?s safety alert database logs about 50 maintenance errors a month. Some are more serious than others. On an Airtours flight leaving Gatwick on January 20, 2000, several passengers heard a bang and saw a panel fly off the plane?s engine. The plane landed safely but an investigation by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch concluded that it was ?highly probable? that a maintenance engineer had failed to secure the panel properly.
On a British Airways flight in August 1999, the flight controls ?seized solid? and the pilot had to use extreme force to free them. BA had issued an engineering order for alterations that would have prevented the mid-air emergency but had not implemented it on the Boeing 747-136 because it was due to be retired from the fleet.
The CAA said last week that it had no safety concerns about Monarch Airlines. A spokesman for Monarch said it was always striving to improve its safety procedures and that it was wrong to judge safety alerts by quantity.
Passengers arriving at Luton on G-MONX were unfazed by the aircraft?s history. Mark Omelnitskai, 27, said: ?Nothing happened on the flight to suggest it had a bad record. My attitude is that if the airline allows the plane to fly, I am happy with that.?
:)