DC 10 ban may be lifted today

Press, 10 July 1979, Page 3

DC 10 ban may be lifted today

NZPA New York l The Federal Aviation! Administration is expected to announce by today the lifting of its June 6 order! that grounded the 138-plane United States fleet of DCIO jets. That would mean the planes could resume flights! 24 hours later unless a new legal barrier was unexpectedly raised m the Federall Courts. The grounding order was issued 12 days after an American Airlines DCIO crashed at Chicago after an underwing engine mount fractured just as the plane was taking off. The death toll of 273 was the highest in an air crash in the United States. The information that the! F.A.A. was almost ready to announce its decision on the grounded DClOs, under stringent inspection and other restrictions, was given in Los Angeles by an agency spokesman, Mr J. Doolittle. Mr Doolittle said that a 24-hour delay in any resumption of the flights would be required to comply

with an order from Judge! Aubrey Robinson of the Fed, [ eral District Court in Wash-j ington. The judge will re,vie\ the findings on which, ■the F.A.A. chief, Mr L. M.j Bond, will base his decision. [ On Friday the F.A.A. sent! ! the eight domestic DCltlj users details of an in-i |spection programme for the' engine mount, or pylon, re-' Iquired before the planes i would be allowed in the air. Since then, questions about the functioning of the [ leading-edge wing flaps. | called slats, also have been! : resolved. Foreign airlines, which fly [another 137 DClOs, accepted .the grounding at first, but they resumed DCIO service i late last month, except to ■the United States. [ The domestic airlines i began on the new in- ! spections, calculated to take 150 man-hours per plane, on [ Saturday. By late Sunday [afternoon, only one aircraft | was known to have flaws 'that might delay its use. Les Bloxham, travel editor of “The Press,” writes that [Air New Zealand’s DClOs I will probably not fly to the

United States before Thursday. . The airline is hoping to ■ receive word from Washing- : ton -tomorrow evening about i the fate of the big jets, but | at this stage there is still no guarantee that the F.A.A. [will not order modifications. Air New Zealand received! advice from McDonnell! ■Douglas yesterday on certain! checks, but some of these! (including a back-up stall-! warning device) have already been attended to. However, the airline will ■have DClOs flying again to United States within 24 [hours of the lifting of the [month-long American ban, [the Press Association reports from Auckland. The airline was getting ready last evening for the clearance of the F.A.A.I grounding order. Because only three DCBs have been flying to the United States since the June 7 grounding, the number of pre-booked Air New Zealand passengers waiting for aircraft to North America is increasing, diminishing travellers’ chances of getting to lheir destinations on time. By the end of this week a back log of 2000 passengers is expected. The DCBs on the service carry only 140 passengers, compared ’ with 246 in the DClOs.

The airline has been unable to charter a relief Boeing 747 to clear the backlog since acquiring a Pan American jumbo for six return flights to Los Angeles late last month, which cost the company $300,000. The airline- has suffered net losses of $7.5 million because of the grounding. The airline has been scouring the world unsuccessfully for jets in good condition to fly Pacific charters. Even the smaller generation of international jets — the DCBs and 707 s — are all but unprocurable. Apart from the demand by other airlines in a similar position, many of these spare aircraft are in service — flying pilgrims to Mecca.