Eagle Air still in dark over fixing cracked aircraft

Air New Zealand subsidiary Eagle Air is still awaiting advice on how to fix hairline cracks discovered in fourteen Beechcraft 1900 aircraft, three days after they were grounded.

The cracks, found near the top of the vertical stabiliser, were initially detected on one aircraft during routine maintenance, prompting the Hamilton-based airline to withdraw them all from service for checks.

Four aircraft have since been given a clean bill of health and are back flying while the others, which were found to have similar cracks of varying degrees, have yet to be cleared.

Air New Zealand spokeswoman Marie Hosking says discussions are continuing with the aircraft’s US manufacturer, Hawker Beechcraft, to see “what the fix needs to be”.

Asked by NBR ONLINE yesterdasy afternoon when the situation was likely to be resolved, she said: “I’m hoping to know by tomorrow morning [Friday] what the timeframe is likely to be from here.

“Hopefully, by then we’ll have a schedule which identifies what aircraft can be returned to service and when.”

In the meantime, the commuter airline is getting by with the help of parent company Air New Zealand.

“Using the resources across our entire fleet we are still transporting two-thirds of Eagle passengers around the time they were originally booked to travel,” Ms Hosking says.

“The other third are still getting to their destinations but just a little bit delayed.”

It is not the first time this year an Air New Zealand subsidiary has grounded its aircraft because of cracks.

In March hairline cracks were found adjacent to cockpit windows on some of Mt Cook Airline's ATR 72-500 aircraft.

Many services were cancelled when they were withdrawn from operations to be checked and fixed.

Hairline cracks in aircraft are relatively common and can be caused by a number of factors, including age, stress or material and design flaws.

If they are not detected and repaired they can have catastrophic consequences, depending on where they are located – which is why airlines take them very seriously.