New DC10 crack ‘not crucial’

Press, 20 July 1979, Page 4

New DC10 crack ‘not crucial’

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor

Air New Zealand has dismissed as “not crucial” the finding of a crack in the pylon housing of one of its DClOs in London yesterday. The aircraft, on lease to British Airways, is expected to be back in service today.

Mr D. C. Saxton, Air New Zealand's director of public and corporate affairs, confirmed last evening that the crack had been found, but emphasised that it could in no way be related to the cracks which prompted the world-wide grounding of all DC 10s after the Chicago crash in May.

"The crack found yesterday was in a non-stress area and was therefore not crucial to the safe performance of the aircraft,” said Mr Saxton. “It is a comparatively frequent occurrence in all wide-bodied planes and is caused by normal wear and tear.”

According to the airline’s director of engineering, Mr G. Kemp, the part involved was the bracing separating the pylon skin from the structural assembly and it had "neither primary nor secondary structural function.”

Eleven suits, seeking damages of at least $l2O million, have been filed in Cook County circuit court by families of victims of the American Airlines crash at Chicago, the NZPA reports from Washington. Other suits have been lodged in Federal courts in Chicago and elsewhere. Named among the defendants in the various cases are American Airlines; the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, builder of the DClO’s body; General Electric, the engine manufacturer; and the Rockford Aerospace Cpmpany, which built a bolt that was designed to hold the engine on the wing. The aim of Air New Zealand would be to break even on its international business this year, but it would take "an extraordinary effort,” said the chief executive (Mr M. R. Davis) yesterday on

his return from the United States.

He was commenting on the $4.5 million profit the international side of the airline made in the year ended March 31.

He was hopeful the airline would be able to avoid a loss on its international services this year, in spite of the $B.B million loss caused by the DClOs’ grounding. “We will really have to pull something out of the bag though. This grounding has had a dreadful impact on us,” he said.

Much would depend on fuel costs increases and whether the airline could recoup on these before they began to drain profits. This applied to the domestic side of the airline as well. Further fare increases directly related to fuel increases were expected soon, he said. Commenting on the DClOs’ grounding, Mr Davis said he was “still bereft of words” at the Federal Aviation Administration’s six - week grounding of the jet.

The work called for on the DC 10 by the F.A.A., as a condition to its return to service,

was already under way before the crash which caused the grounding. The F.A.A. singled out new work on the control system for the aircraft’s wing slats, and said that the maker, McDonnell Douglas, had to do this on the aircraft within the next two years.

Mr Davis, who visited McDonnell Douglas, said; “What has not been mentioned is that McDonnell Douglas has been working on this for the last 18 months. It is a continual part of the product improvement programme which goes on with all big jets in service. In fact, some of this has already been incorporated in our DClOs.

“It would have been done regardless of whether the F.A.A. had called for it. It is part of our policy of continually improving the aircraft.” Mr Davis said that before the DClOs’ grounding early in June, the international side of the airline was doing slightly better than budgeting expected. “We have still to assess the total effect of the grounding, and the effect on business. It could take some weeks,” he said. ~