Passengers waiting to board Kulula and British Airways flights were left frustrated on Tuesday morning, when cancellations, emanating from a maintenance report, grounded several aircraft. Comair Limited – which serves as British Airways’ South African operator – released a statement early on Tuesday morning, warning passengers of delays affecting domestic routes. According to Comair, planes were grounded on Monday evening after South African Airways Technical (SAAT) released its finding of an audit. In the wake of the report, the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) issued a notice relating to “irregular findings” – effectively halting Kulula and British Airways operations. Comair said:

“Affected aircraft may not be flown until the necessary corrective action has been carried out.

Comair have contingency plans in place and aim to minimise any disruption to its operations. We will keep our customers updated. Customers can check their latest flight status on the relevant websites.”

This isn’t the first that Comair has had a run-in with South African Airways Technical. Last month, during an annual financial report, Comair noted that it had received a significant court settlement from SAAT, which the Kulula and BA operator held accountable for improper maintenance scheduling and parts inventories. Furthermore, Comair lodged a civil claim back in 2006 which alleged that SAA paid travel agents gratuitous amounts to ‘divert’ passengers away from Kulula and British Airways. The Competition Appeal Court ruled SAA’s ‘innovation strategy’ as improper. Comair joint CEO, Glenn Orsmond, confirmed that SAA coughed-up a R1.27 billion settlement.

Source: The South African

Investigators are probing an apparent uncontained engine failure involving a Thai Airways International Boeing 777-300ER during departure from Bangkok. The aircraft had been operating flight TG970 to Zurich, from runway 01L, at about 01:30 on 20 October. Thai says the aircraft had been rolling for take-off when the left-hand General Electric GE90 powerplant failed, prompting the crew to abort the departure. The aircraft – provisionally identified as HS-TKL, a 2012 airframe – had been transporting 339 passengers and 20 crew members. Images circulating on social media, purportedly showing the aircraft's engine but unverified by FlightGlobal, indicate substantial damage to the powerplant's aft right-hand side. Thai says the 777 needed to undergo repair and the passengers had to be accommodated overnight owing to the lack of a spare aircraft.

Source: FlightGlobal

Qantas's first Project Sunrise test flight has arrived in Sydney, the nonstop Boeing 787-9 touching down on runway 16R some 19h 16min after becoming airborne from New York JFK. Project Sunrise is the airline's initiative to open nonstop services to the Australian east coast from New York and London from around 2022-23. Although these services will use either Airbus A350 or Boeing 777X jets, three Qantas 787 delivery flights will be used during the fourth quarter of this year to gather data on ultra-long-haul services for the carrier. The first of these 787s – a General Electric GEnx-powered twinjet, VH-ZHI – took off from JFK's runway 31L shortly before 21:30 on 18 October. Designated as flight QF7879 the aircraft transported just 49 passengers and crew, and no cargo, in order to give it the necessary range. It carried a maximum fuel load of 101t and Qantas expected the aircraft to land with 6t on board. It landed with a "comfortable" 70min of fuel remaining, according to the aircraft's captain, Sean Golding. The airline says it departed at 233t. The jet had been delivered from Boeing's Seattle facility and transferred to Los Angeles before flying to New York ahead of the Project Sunrise test. It departed JFK about 3h behind the regular QF12 service which operates to Sydney via Los Angeles – a 787 conducting the first sector before an Airbus A380 picks up the transpacific leg. The QF12 flight arrived in Los Angeles while the Project Sunrise aircraft was still in the vicinity of Missouri. But the connection time meant that, by the time the A380 took off for Sydney, it had been caught by the nonstop 787 which effectively shadowed it across the ocean.

Source: FlightGlobal