The Vietnam Civil Aviation Department announced the investigation results regarding the technical errors of the airplane maintenance systems for Jetstar Pacific Airlines (JPA).
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| Jetstar Pacific Airplane at Noi Bai Airport |
JPA encountered technical errors with the airplane maintenance system which threatened the safety of flights.
The findings revealed a number of faults in JPA's procedures, including: JPA did not adhere to maintenance processes or structural repair processes set forth by the Vietnam Civil Aviation Department for a substantial amount of time; changes that were approved were delayed and not implemented; anti-icing systems were never authorised and technicians within the company tried to cover-up the errors.
In addition, many sub-contractors did not meet the industry regulations and standards for airplane maintenance. Many technical errors were not recorded in documents or reported by pilots, some pilots did not bother to note down problems when landing, and many errors were not fixed in a proper manner.
JPA also failed to implement the aviation safety culture which which they had committed to, according to the investigation team at the Vietnam Civil Aviation Department. Many staff did not dare to report the breakdown. These breakdowns were ignored even though two managers with the quality assurance and technical maintenance departments reported the claims days after they were dismissed.
The inspection also revealed that there was no evidence of a managemerial guideline which asked the staff to cover-up breakdowns in the system or to continue airplane operation.
Regarding the dismissal of the two engineers, Bernard John and Digger Dolphus King, the Vietnam Civil Aviation Department concluded that JPA violated employment regulations when they fired Bernard John, the former chief engineer of JPA.
JPA did not provide the authority with a report on mistakes made by Digger Dolphus King.
As a result, the department has decided to revoke the permit of "A check" implementations (the periodic checks that have to be done on all aircraft after a certain amount of time or usage by the airline), fired Luong Hoai Nam, Former General Manager of JPA; and two managers of the quality assurance and technical maintenance departments namely Atanas Stankov and David Andrew.
In addition, John Louis Korgul was revoked of his technician certificates and all engineers, other technicians, and pilots of JPA who breached regulations of aircraft operation and maintenance were warned not to break the laws again.
JPA is being told to strictly obey all laws, regulations, aircraft operation and maintenance manual protocols, improve the quality assurance control system, reform the organisation mechanism and clarify responsibilities of each individual associated with the aircraft operation and maintenance department.
JPA is also required to complete the procedure of enabling foreigners to work in JPA as is regulated.
Organisations and individuals who intended to cover and not to cooperate with the inspection teams will be fined.
JPA will be monitored closely in order to avoid revenge against those who were cooperative with the inspectors.
