Air NZ 747 loses panel over Auckland
 

Reuters

Plane loses panel over Auckland

Air New Zealand says it is examining its jumbo jets after a panel fell from the side of one after it took off from Auckland's International airport.

A company spokesman, Mark Champion, says several people on the ground saw the 1.3 metre long panel fall from the plane onto a car park in Manukau city.

The plane, with 358 people on board, was on its way to Japan when the piece fell off.

"The decision was made to return the aircraft to Auckland after it was established that the plane had lost the panel. This was done to ascertain whether any other damage might have occurred," says Champion.

Champion says it is also easier for repairs to be carried out at the Air New Zealand maintenance base at Auckland Airport.

While the airline says it was a disconcerting experience for passengers the aircraft was not in danger at any time.

"The panel is not structural and its detachment did not impact the performance of the aircraft."

The Civil Aviation Authority says it is very unusual for something to fall off the side of a jumbo jets and it will investigate the incident.

CAA spokesman, Bill Sommer, says the panel was a non structural part of the aircraft and that Air New Zealand is making a visual inspection of all of its jumbo jets at airports around the world.

Passengers faced a five hour delay before a replacement jumbo was made available.

Last year a five kilo piece of wing flap fell off an Air New Zealand jet and crashed through the roof of a south Auckland warehouse.

:) "The CAA say that it is very unusual for things to fall off the side of Jumbo Jets"

I think it is pretty unusual for things to fall off ANY jet!

BTW, does anyone know what it was that fell off?:p

it was a fibreglass panel that sits directly above the starboard inboard engine pylon on the top of the wing just behind the leading edge, looks like the maintenance staff didnt fix it back on after removing it for maintenance.

Plane loses pilot over Auckland

Air New Zealand says it is examining its jumbo jets after a pilot fell from the side of one after it took off from Auckland's International airport.

A company spokesman, Mark Champion, says several people on the ground saw the 1.3 metre long pilot fall from the plane onto a car park in Manukau city.

The plane, with 358 people on board, was on its way to Japan when the piece fell off.

"The decision was made to return the aircraft to Auckland after it was established that the plane had lost the pilot. This was done to ascertain whether any other damage might have occurred," says Champion.

Champion says it is also easier for repairs to be carried out at the Air New Zealand maintenance base at Auckland Airport.

While the airline says it was a disconcerting experience for passengers the aircraft was not in danger at any time.

"The pilot is not structural and its detachment did not impact the performance of the aircraft."

The Civil Aviation Authority says it is very unusual for something to fall off the side of a jumbo jets and it will investigate the incident.

CAA spokesman, Bill Sommer, says the pilot was a non structural part of the aircraft and that Air New Zealand is making a visual inspection of all of its jumbo jets at airports around the world.

Passengers faced a five hour delay before a replacement jumbo was made available.

Last year a five kilo pilot fell off an Air New Zealand jet and crashed through the roof of a south Auckland warehouse.


:D :D

Low on cash, cutting corners by chance??? ;)

Before everybody jumps to blaming maintenance (unless they've got the little baggie with the missing screws in their hands - naughty), it's well to remember that over the years,the 747 has shed quite a few wing leading edge and trailing edge fibreglass panels. The panels being fibreglass can be subject to cracking from moisture ingestion ( freeze / thaw ) in minute stress cracks. They're not generally visible to the naked eye, especially on top of the wing and need a "tap test" with metallic coin of the realm to see if they're cracked. They tend to lose wing inboard trailing edge panels more than the L/E, but unfortunately I've had to fix both over the years. So while its certainly possible somebody forgot to screw it back on, there are a couple of other reasons for said bit to go walkabout.

Quite so, tinyrice! And as it's such a well-known feature, I'm sure that RESPONSIBLE maintenance teams give these areas the extra attention they deserve during regular, routine stopover checks. :cool:

After all, this did happen shortly after TAKE-OFF.

It's well and good to say that everyone is "aware" of these problems, but unless some ACTION is taken to CHECK on them (at every turnaround) then the same reports will continue to come in.

Until someone is eventually KILLED! :eek:

If it was an airbus there would be about 50 one eyed replies by now. So not to disappoint anyone I'll stick my head up and say maybe if the built these outdated yank tanks properly in the first place then sh*t wouldn't be falling off them all of the time. Why do we call it a 747 classic? Why don't we just call it an old plane? :D :D :D :D :D :D

I was delighted to see our razor-sharp investigative journos on the job in Granny Herald this morning. "....shock, horror ....part falls off ANZ aircraft, crew decide to return to Auckland....passenger Cynthia Snivvely (famous something-or -other, we couldn't find anyone who knew about aircraft)states 'Well they wouldn't return if it were not serious- I certainly won't be travelling with them again...'."

:rolleyes:

ps (for albatros) It was a -400, not a classic. Brierlys sold the classics a while ago.

Time for a one-eyed reply to albatoss....

the difference is that the yank tank keeps flying after it loses bits, the scarebus doesnt.



ahhh *that feels better* :D :D

Mon "New Zealand Herald" 26/8/02

Parts problem causes two aborted flights
26.08.2002
By CATHY ARONSON

Two Air New Zealand flights were aborted in the weekend after a panel from a Boeing 747 plane fell onto a Manukau carpark and a Boeing 767 from Perth had steering problems.

Air New Zealand visually inspected the rest of its fleet this weekend, but said there were no other problems and the two incidents were not related.

The first problem happened on Friday night one hour into a six-hour flight to Auckland. The 767 pilot was forced to turn back to Perth airport after the computer detected a problem with the aileron, a banking control on the wing used to turn the aircraft.

The plane's 217 passengers were delayed for 18 hours while engineers replaced the aileron with a new one ordered from Sydney.

Air New Zealand said the passengers were not in danger as the pilot did not lose steering control but turned back as a precaution.

One passenger, children's book publisher Wendy Pye, said many on board the flight vowed to never fly Air New Zealand again.

"I've been flying for 25 years. I spend seven months of the year flying around the world and I've never experienced anything like it. They wouldn't turn back unless it was serious and they wouldn't order a new part if it wasn't broken."

When the plane finally arrived in Auckland on Sunday morning, the passengers clapped, she said.

On Saturday morning another Air New Zealand plane, a 747-400, was forced to turn back to Auckland Airport shortly after take-off to Japan when a panel detached from the right wing above the engine.

The crew were unaware the panel had fallen off until the police contacted the airline when two members of the public saw it fall.

The 10kg panel fell onto a carpark between Cavendish Drive and Ronwood Ave, 800m away from the Wiri police station.

The 1.3m by 80cm panel was non- structural, and did not affect the plane's performance.

The 350 passengers faced a five-hour delay while Air New Zealand found a replacement 747, which took off again at 1.30pm.

Air New Zealand gave its eight jumbo jets the all-clear yesterday after it visually inspected each one as they landed around the world in the weekend

The Civil Aviation Authority will investigate both incidents.

CAA spokesperson Bill Sommer said an air accident inspector had inspected the aircraft but had not determined a cause.

Air New Zealand was cleared of blame for a similar incident in May when a 5kg piece of metal broke off a wing of a 767 and smashed through a Manukau warehouse roof.

well the 747 had just come out of maintenance, so they are the obvious ones to blame

Sounds as though children's book publisher, Ms Pye (all women in N.Z. are Ms (read genderless) aren't they?), knows more about Air New Zealand management than she's letting on, when she said "....they wouldn't order a new part if it wasn't broken." ;)

After all, Ms Pye has been flying as a passenger for 25 years, and spends 7 months of the year flying around the world.

I knew Air NZ had some old heaps - but 7 months to fly around the world!

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice that in the posting by "strobes_on", everyplace the word panel should occur, the word pilot is used instead. That's kinda weird. :D

Chicken $hit airline.

Flight Safety..... You're having us on...aren't you?

I think it is just inexcusable for any airline that wants to be taken seriously to "lose" anything off an aircraft in flight.

Otherwise what are all the safety processes and maintenance checking including double sign offs really all about.

A head must roll, or at the very least, severe disciplinary action.
This is not just a case of sh!t happens.:rolleyes:

Where are the NZ regulators and why aren't they going through Air NZ like a dose of salts.

You can see another discussion here http://airliners.net/discussions/gen...d.main/908725/ which also shows a pic of the virtually undamaged panel, it has almost all the fastener holes so it looks like it was held down by only a few screws. Looks like the cross on the panel is there to signify that the panel had yet to be screwed down and was over looked.

Confused
 

Gaunty, I'm confused :confused: and not sure if you're taking the p1ss with your comments, about two posts up. What about this thread ?

Gaunty said.
Otherwise what are all the safety processes and maintenance checking including double sign offs really all about.

Sorry bloke but times are tough:D :D

Just sign it twice !!:D

Hmmm. Not too hard to see who is ex Ansett here. Any chance to dump on Air NZ huh?