Air New Zealand is pleased to receive the interim report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) into the engine failure which occurred on the airline's Boeing 767-200 service NZ 132 Brisbane - Auckland on 8 December last year.
Air New Zealand Vice President Operations & Technical, Craig Sinclair, said that while the ATSB report confirmed a high pressure turbine disk in the left engine failed, no obvious root cause of the failure has been determined at this stage.
"It is clear, however, that there are no concerns about the maintenance of the disk being a factor in the failure of the engine" said Mr Sinclair.
"Given that the root cause has not yet been identified, Air New Zealand has taken the precaution of increasing type and frequency of inspections of the same disks in the airline's other 8 CF6-80A engines. This inspection programme is in excess of the recent FAA Airworthiness Directive and will be completed by mid-April."
New inspection thresholds for the engine disks on the world wide fleet are likely to be introduced by the engine manufacturer, General Electric. Air New Zealand anticipates these new thresholds will be consistent with the practices it has already introduced.
Additional metallurgical testing of the failed disk will be carried out in the United States by the manufacturer and the appropriate authorities.
The Brisbane incident will be included in the peer review of Air New Zealand engineering and maintenance to be undertaken by Boeing representatives. The Boeing review is expected to commence early next month.
NOTE: The content of all Air New Zealand media releases are accurate at the time of issue, as stated at the top of each release. For updates on any changes, please contact Air New Zealand.
Air New Zealand is proud to be a member of Star Alliance. The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer worldwide reach, recognition and seamless service to the international traveller. Its acceptance by the market has been recognised by numerous awards, including the Air Transport World Market Leadership Award, Best Airline Alliance by both Business Traveller Magazine and Skytrax. The member airlines are: Adria Airways, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Blue1, bmi, Continental Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Spanair, SWISS, TAP Portugal, Turkish Airlines, THAI, United and US Airways. Aegean Airlines, Air India, Brussels Airlines and TAM have been announced as future members. Overall, the Star Alliance network offers 19,500 daily flights to 1,071 airports in 171 countries.
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