An aircraft owned by Phuket Air has been grounded – and another banned from carrying passengers – after major faults were discovered by safety inspectors.
Following three safety scares in the last week, the Department for Transport (DfT) ordered emergency inspections of the carrier’s aircraft and, according to The Times, found that the collision avoidance system on one jumbo jet was broken, while another did not have operational evacuation safety lights.
The newspaper reports that thousands of people are booked to travel with the airline over the next three weeks and that it is not yet clear how Phuket Air will manage to carry them.
A DfT spokesman reportedly confirmed that the carrier had allowed one plane to take off on Friday, even though it was aware that collision avoidance system was not working.
The airline’s UK management appears to be responding in a less-than-robust manner; several calls by News From Abroad failed to attract the attention of any directors or managers – or even a comment on proceedings – while Marie Prince, UK spokeswoman for the carrier, told The Times that she has been unable to glean any information.
She is quoted as saying: “I have no idea what it going on because they are not returning my calls. I haven’t had any information since 3pm yesterday, yet I have had 85 calls from journalists.”
Ms Prince was still not available for comment this morning and her answer message refers all queries back to the UK office of the carrier. However, no-one at the carrier’s offices was prepared to make any comment today.
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd www.newsfromabroad.com
