Piece from jet smashes into warehouse

By PAUL YANDALL and JO-MARIE BROWN

An Air New Zealand jet remains grounded as investigators try to discover how a 5kg wing part fell off and crashed through a warehouse, narrowly missing customers and staff.

The chunk of metal is part of a running guide for the wing flaps and holds them in place once they are extended. Boeing service bulletins have warned that the guide needs to be checked regularly.

A Civil Aviation Authority inspector recovered the 45cm object from the Gilmour James & Co warehouse in Manukau soon after it smashed through the roof.

It was handed to Air New Zealand for inspection. The airline and CAA were yesterday closely examining it and the plane in a hangar at Auckland Airport.

The Boeing 767-300 was approaching Auckland International Airport from Sydney about 2.50 pm on Saturday. It is now grounded indefinitely and is not expected to fly until inspectors can determine exactly how the fault occurred.

The investigating team of Air New Zealand engineers has also been ordered to find why the fault was not discovered although inspectors were alerted to a problem with the wing flaps before the plane left Sydney.

Qantas engineers, who maintain Air New Zealand planes in Australia, inspected the plane and cleared it to fly to Auckland after a passenger with aviation experience alerted the flight crew that the wing-flap configuration was wrong.

Flight NZ102 continued with 148 passengers and 10 crew and the part came free from the plane while it was between 1000 and 1500 feet in the air.

Air New Zealand has since cleared its 10 other 767-300s, as well as its three 767-200s, of any fault that could lead to a similar incident.

Company spokesman Cameron Hill said the type of accident was very rare and the airline had launched an investigation.

"We do not have things falling off our planes all the time. The safety of our craft is something we take very seriously and we are trying to determine what went wrong."

He said there were no specific service bulletins for the part that fell off.

CAA spokesman Martyn Gosling, said an inspector would play a monitoring role in the inquiry.

The fault with the running guide was known to airlines and was supposed to be looked for regularly.

"It's a worldwide phenomenon known for years and is covered in a Boeing service bulletin."

But Mr Gosling said the CAA still wanted to know why the part cracked to the extent that it broke off.

Customers and staff at the Manukau warehouse on Cavendish Drive were horrified to see the part pierce the iron roof and crash into a pallet of pre-mixed vodka and cranberry drinks.

The manager of the food wholesaler's Manukau branch, Brian Bonner, said it fell in a spear-like fashion and it was extremely lucky that no one was hurt.

"Anything thrown from a height, even something light, would make a little dent in us mortals, wouldn't it?"

The dinner plate-sized hole in the warehouse's roof will be repaired today, said Mr Bonner, who is now wondering how often parts fall off planes unnoticed.

"You don't expect things to drop out of the sky do you? If it had fallen into the carpark we might never have known."

Air New Zealand passengers were also concerned about the airline's latest safety mishap.

Gordon and Glenda Morgan, travelling home to Adelaide, believed maintenance checks needed to be more stringent.



"Ansett Australia are having problems and I think it's all down to the lack of time being spent in their maintenance checks, said Mr Morgan.

"It might be time saving and cost saving, but is it life saving? That's always a worry."

Mrs Morgan said news of the wayward wing flap did not put her off flying "but there's always that niggling fear in the back of your mind."

Meanwhile, the last thing on the minds of United Airlines passengers bound for Los Angeles on Saturday night was that their aircraft might reverse into Auckland's International terminal.

United Airlines said the Boeing 747-400 was being pushed out of gate two by a smaller vehicle when its right wingtip gouged a small hole in the terminal's wall.

When the rescheduled flight left yesterday afternoon, both wingtips - which were not crucial to the plane's operation - had been removed.