Following an incident in which explosive decompression ripped a hole in the fuselage of an American Airlines jet, causing an emergency landing, the US Federal Aviation Authority has issued a directive to inspect all potentially affected aircraft for metal fatigue.
The world wide directive will affect Boeing 737-300, 400 and 500 models, 175 in total.
Qantas spokeswoman Emma Kearns has said that Qantas will examine four of its 737-400s but has denied that it will have to ground the aircraft.
“We don’t have to ground them, we just have to carry out inspections on four of the fleet in line with the airline worthiness directive by the FAA…We’ll be carrying out those inspections within the next 10 days.”
Ms Kearns said that checking for metal fatigue is straightforward and should not affect service.
Qantas is planning on selling 21 of its Boeing 737-400s in order to make room in its fleet for newer, greener aircraft in order to combat the rise in fuel prices that are expected to continue into the unforeseeable future.
Despite the number of incidents which have plagued Qantas over the last six months and now possibility that some of its fleet may be taken out of service Qantas is faring well. The airline is tied fifth with Thai Airways in the latest International Airline Satisfaction report with 81 percent of customers satisfied.
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