Airlines wait anxiously for crash verdict

Press, 23 December 1988, Page 10

Airlines wait anxiously for crash verdict

NZPA-PA London Airlines with first generation Boeings in their fleet anxiously await news of just what went wrong in the Pan-Am disaster in Scotland yesterday.

The plane that crashed yesterday was a Pan Am 747-100, tail number N739PA, delivered to the airline in February, 1970. There are 190 Boeing 747-100 s still being flown throughout the world. Should the investigators reach a conclusion that involves the safety of the aircraft, airlines could be forced to ground these Boeings. In Sydney, a Qantas spokesman told A.A.P. the airline had not flown any of the early models for many years. After the Japan Air

Lines crash of August, 1985, which killed 520 people, the United States Government ordered a modification of Boeings. The directive required that a cover plate be placed over an access door in the tail section of the aircraft to prevent a rush of pressurised air from damaging the tail and critical control lines if the rear cabin wall failed. Also in 1986, cracks were discovered in the nose frames of eight 747 s worldwide and tests were ordered by the United

States Government. New generation 747400 s are now available. A British Airways spokesman said: “The old aircraft are perfectly safe. It is just that the new ones are more efficient.” The crash yesterday was the sixth involving a Boeing 747 in the last five years. The most recent crash of a 747 occurred on November 28, 1987, when a plane owned by the South African national airline S.A.A. plunged into the Indian Ocean, killing all 160 passengers and crew members aboard.