D-Day for fate of Ansett Boeings

By SCOTT MacLEOD transport reporter

Safety inspectors should decide tomorrow morning whether the first of Ansett Australia's Boeing 767s will be cleared to fly - or whether the airline's crisis will worsen.

Engineers from Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Casa) started inspecting the Boeing in Melbourne late yesterday, and estimated that checks would take 36 hours.

If no faults are found, then Ansett's other nine Boeing 767s are likely to be cleared after "spot checks." But any safety flaws will put the airline at risk of having all its 64 planes grounded indefinitely.

The inspection started after a frantic day of negotiations between Ansett/Air New Zealand, Casa, and Australian ministers - and as Air NZ engineers said they feared the crisis would mar their reputations.

Ansett-Air NZ chief executive Gary Toomey flew from Melbourne to Canberra, where he tried to sway Casa officials from issuing a "show cause" notice. The notice would give Ansett two weeks to prove why it should not be shut down.

Late yesterday, the results of the meeting with Casa and an earlier one with Transport Minister John Anderson were unclear, but Mr Toomey told Australian media that the talks had been "amicable."

Casa spokeswoman Jane Dargaville said two teams of six engineers were inspecting the first plane in 16-hour shifts.

Ansett's 767s were grounded last Thursday after cracks were found in the engine mountings on three planes. Another plane flew eight times with its escape chutes out of action.

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union said its Air NZ members feared the public would associate them with Ansett.

The union's national secretary, Andrew Little, said Air NZ had a world-class reputation, and had maintained planes for Australian, Indonesian and Argentine airlines.

Some of the 1400 Air NZ engineering union members feared that their reputation had been tarnished by the problems at Ansett, because people thought the two airlines had the same staff and maintenance procedures.

"People are saying that if there is a problem in Australia then there's a problem here," Mr Little said. "But there's room for two quality airlines in this country, and no compromise in safety at Air New Zealand."

Australian Ansett engineer Neale Dunstan told the Sydney Morning Herald that the airline's woes stemmed from the Air NZ takeover, funding cuts and the merging of several departments.

But he said Casa should have been more lenient about the disabled emergency slide that sparked the groundings.

The jet had just come out of heavy maintenance, and "there would not be an airline in the world that has not had a cock-up after heavy maintenance."