Air New Zealand has confirmed it has carried out checks on its Dreamliner fleet following an incident on a LATAM flight bound for Auckland that injured 50 people.
Air New Zealand Chief Operational and Integrity and Safety Officer, Captain David Morgan said for Air New Zealand, and the wider aviation community, the safety of its people and customers is the airline’s number one priority.
“Since the incident with Flight LA800, we’ve been working alongside other carriers who operate the Boeing 787 aircraft to understand what may have happened.
“Based on an assumption as to what the cause may have been, we initiated a fleet wide inspection of the flight deck seat mechanism including the seat electrical switches.
“Subsequently, we received advice from Boeing asking airlines to inspect and maintain switches on flight deck seats, Captain Morgan said.
“Our inspection programme has so far found no defects on any of our aircraft.
“We have a rigorous aircraft maintenance schedule in place to ensure our all aircraft in our fleet are at the highest degree of safety. We work closely with aircraft and engine manufacturers to ensure we meet all engineering and maintenance requirements,” he said.
The checks followed a recommendation from aircraft manufacturer Boeing, to airlines operating the Dreamliner aircraft.
Boeing told airlines to check switches located on the cockpit seats in its 787 Dreamliner jets after a published report said an accidental cockpit seat movement was the most likely cause of the LATAM incident.
However, Boeing itself did not make any reference to the LATAM incident when making the recommendation, instead calling it a “precautionary measure.”
The Federal Aviation Administration which is establishing a panel to review Boeing’s message to airlines said the memo was issued “in response to the incident on LATAM Flight 800.”
