Fri, Dec 23, 2005
Outboard Engines Swapped By Outsourced Maintenance
Facility
Heads are likely
rolling at Japan Airlines and Singapore's ST Aviation Services
after the airline discovered one of its 747s has been flying for
seven months with the left outboard and right outboard engines
mistakenly swapped.
Airline officials admitted the error Wednesday, stating it
occurred when ST Aviation Services performed an overhaul on the
aircraft in February. The plane began flying passenger routes with
the mis-attached engines in April.
The swap of the aircraft's two outboard engines never
compromised the safety of the aircraft, said JAL authorities to
Kyoto News.
While its true the engines operated just as they would normally
under regular thrust conditions, the engines are not
interchangeable with each other: the engines' thrust reversers were
incorrectly positioned in the swap.
During reverse thrust braking procedures, each engine directed
the thrust towards the fuselage of the aircraft, instead of away
from it as intended -- causing little issue with braking
performance, although it possibly added to the noise level in the
cabin.
Also as a result of the
mistake, components in one of the engines were not inspected at the
scheduled 650 flight-hour interval -- instead flying over 850 hours
before the switch was discovered during a November maintenance
check.
According to Kyoto News, Japan's Land, Infrastructure and
Transport Ministry directed the airline "to take measures to
prevent any recurrence" of the engine swapping error. For its part,
JAL will revise its in-house procedures to ensure that inspections
on the planes are conducted after outsourced maintenance work.
The airline's current policy only calls for checking documents
after the completion of maintenance work.
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