VietNamNet Bridge – The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has announced it will conduct surprise inspections on old but operational aircrafts in Vietnam. The decision has been made after holes appeared in the top and fuselage of a series of Boeing 737-300 in the US.

CAAV said it has sent documents to notify personnel about the inspections of all domestic airlines and asking the airlines to follow all necessary procedures relating to the maintenance. The inspectors will focus on checking old aircrafts which have taken off and landed more than 35,000 times.

CAAV has been warned about the safety issues that may occur with aircrafts of Vietnam Airlines after they occurred with aircrafts of airlines in the US.

“The US Federal Aviation Administration FAA is investigating the reasons behind the troubles already. However, in the immediate time, we still have to take necessary measures to ensure the safety of the aircrafts of Vietnamese air carriers,” an official of CAAV said.

The official said that Vietnamese airlines now have more than 100 aircrafts but none of them  are the Boeing 737-300 aircrafts that were found to have holes during inspections of air carriers in the US. The aircrafts being used by Vietnamese air carriers are mostly new, and the oldest aircrafts are only about 15-20 years old.

“After the troubles that occurred in the US, CAAV has taken the responsibility of warning airlines and asking them to heighten inspections and follow all necessary maintenance procedures,” the CAAV’s representative said.

According to him, aircrafts need to be examined not depending on their age, but on how they are used (taking off and landing, flight frequency). Besides Boeing 737, CAAV will also inspect other kinds of aircrafts such as Airbust A320 and Fokker. These are the aircraft series which have been used for a long period of time and are still being used by some domestic air carriers.

Currently, Vietnam has four airlines which provide flights on domestic routes, including Jetstar Pacific, Vasco, Air Mekong, and national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines.

Vietnam Airlines is now using 10 Boeing 777s. The oldest aircraft has been operating since 2003. The four-aircraft fleet of Air Mekong include Bombardier CRJ900s. Meanwhile, Jetstar Pacific has five Boeing 737-400 among the seven vessel aircraft fleet.

Representative of Jetstar Pacific said that after the holes were discovered in a series of aircrafts, FAA and Boeing have advised air carriers to undertake inspections of the aircrafts that have taken off and landed more 35,000 times and more, especially Boeing 737-300s, B737-400s and B737-500s.

“We do believe that this is a necessary thing to do in order to ensure the highest level of safety in aviation transport,” he said.

He went on to say that Jetstar Pacific has five Boeing 737-400s, which were maintained and examined in accordance with the international standards in Singapore earlier this year. “We always follow necessary safety procedures and will inspect the aircrafts again as suggested,” he said.

In mid 2009, after the catastrophic crash of an Air France flight, a lot of Vietnamese aircrafts were put under the strict maintenance and inspection. Especially, A330 were put into the list of aircrafts that needed special supervision.

At that time, Vietnam Airlines exploited three A330s, including two A330-200s and one A330-300.

FAA has announced it is nearly completing the inspections of over 79 Boeing 737-300s aircrafts owned by Southwest Airlines after holes were discovered in a few aircrafts on April 1.

Of the 79 examined aircrafts, the National Transportation Safety Board NTSB has discovered cracks on the fuselage of three aircrafts, according to CNN.

Source: VnExpress