www.qantas.com.au

Engineers at Qantas are working with aircraft manufacturer Airbus following the cockpit fire in a Jetstar plane last Wednesday that forced the international flight with 203 people on board into an emergency landing on the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

Qantas, the parent company of Jetstar, has announced it is carrying out visual checks on the cockpit area of all Airbus A330s in its fleet, as a precautionary measure.

Alan Joyce, the CEO of Qantas, said: “Should we have any concerns, these will be addressed immediately before an aircraft returns to service.”

He added: “More detailed inspections will follow and should any directives be issued by safety authorities or Airbus, we will respond to them immediately.”

The cockpit fire will be officially investigated by the US National Transport Safety Bureau, with the support of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Jetstar and Qantas.

Joyce commented: “We are confident this is an isolated incident and that there is no link with any issues around the recent Air France accident.”

Airbus denied a media report that it was considering the grounding of all long haul A330 and A340 aircraft so that airspeed sensors could be replaced after the Air France crash into the Atlantic.

According to a company spokesperson, the plane manufacturer has written to its clients, assuring them of the safety of the A330, including the jets with older speed sensors – which have been cited as a possible cause of the devastating crash of Air France flight 447.

Thanks to www.travelmole.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.qantas.com.au