Frayed wires spark third Metroliner safety alert

By SCOTT MacLEOD

The Civil Aviation Authority has issued its third warning in two years about Fairchild Metroliner aircraft and has told airlines to urgently repair a wiring fault.

The authority's emergency airworthiness directive warns that frayed wires found near fuel tanks in some of the twin-engined aircraft could arc, sparking an explosion.

In another aviation mishap yesterday, a London-bound Air New Zealand 747 was delayed at Los Angeles International Airport after its wingtip smashed into another plane as it was being towed.

The 404 passengers and 17 crew had to wait for more than two hours for repairs to be made.

The Metroliner problem was found last Wednesday when a circuit breaker on an Air Nelson plane tripped unexpectedly.

The airline said yesterday that it had since found damaged wiring in four other Metroliners.

Eagle Air also reported a fault with one of its aircraft.

The authority gave airlines until Thursday to inspect all their Metroliners and fix the problem.

Its directive says: "This action is intended to prevent possible electrical arcing that could provide an ignition source inside the fuel tank and consequent fire/explosion."

Another Metroliner directive, warning of cracks in landing gear, was issued on July 31, after one of the aircraft made a crash-landing.

And in September 1998, an emergency directive warned of two incidents in which Metroliner stabilisers slipped "to or near the full nose-up position."

Authority spokesman Martyn Gosling said yesterday that there was no need for alarm about Metroliners. The directives merely showed that "the system is working" and there was good communication between the various parties. The problem was not bad enough to ground the planes.

"It sounds serious and it is serious," he said. "But not so that it requires fixing before flight."

About 500 of the 18-seater Metroliners are in service around the world, at least 20 of them in New Zealand.

Air Nelson and Eagle Air each fly six of the planes under the Air New Zealand Link brand.

Air New Zealand spokesman Cameron Hill said all the aircraft would be fixed by tomorrow evening. All faulty wiring had been switched off and isolated.

A spokesman for Auckland-based Airworks NZ said one of his airline's six Metroliners needed servicing, and would be fixed by this morning.

Origin Pacific Airways managing director Robert Inglis said no faults had been found in his airline's two freight-carrying Metroliners.

Air Chathams chief pilot Warren Gleeson said both his Metroliners had been checked, and were fine.

Mr Gosling said aircraft faults often appeared in New Zealand before other parts of the world because our planes were put under extra stress by short flights and frequent landings.

He understood Fairchild may redesign the Metroliner's landing gear after hearing of last month's faults in New Zealand.

The Los Angeles accident happened when an airport tractor driver pulled the Air New Zealand aircraft into another plane.

Passenger Peter Whitehead, of Christchurch, said a tractor pulled the packed aircraft away from a gate - and straight into another plane.

"Engineers are working frantically," he told the Herald by cellphone.

"We were ready to take off when there was a jolt that made quite a mess of the wingtip."

Air NZ engineers removed the wingtip and the aircraft flew to London without it.