The Budget Airline – Tiger Airlines has announced that they will no longer be performing flights from Queensland to Adelaide after it was earlier revealed that the airway safety rules had been breached!
One of the Tiger aircraft flew with passengers on board with a faulty wing a few months ago, before it was fixed! The Herald Sun reported that this breached several safety rules in the air. The faulty wing was only reported as a “major” problem, when the wind began to vibrate and shake at a continuous rate causing uncomfortable and dangerous flights.
The Airbus A320 has since been repaired, but the flights from Queensland to Adelaide are still to be axed. It was revealed by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau that the problem that this Airbus displayed should have been reported and noted at least 8 months ago! The problems were first noticed by another pilot flying the plane these 8 months before, and should have turned back for repair!
Tiger Airlines have said that there safety in the air was never compromised, and that although two instances of this being reported, that they were not related!
The issue was that one of the Servo valves in the wing that monitored and controlled how the flaps were operated had failed.
The Ailerons (wing flaps) are used to control the ascent and descent of the aircraft, a somewhat crucial role to play when flying.
Tiger Airways announced that no jobs would be lost, and that staff manning the Queensland to Adelaide flights would be distributed elsewhere. Air New Zealand has taken over from Tiger to assist passengers that need to travel from these destinations.
Vanessa Regan, the spokeswoman of Tiger has announced that all jobs are safe, that everyone will be reallocated, and that there is a chance that the flights could resume in the future!
Whether or not this will impact on Australia holidays is still to be determined!
