The Straits Times

Another two flights hit snags

WITHIN a span of 24 hours of the fatal Singapore Airlines flight, two of the company's other planes ran into engine problems.

A flight from Australia was delayed by about 10 hours on Wednesday night because of a blockage on the Sydney runway and potential generator problems.

An SIA spokesman said SQ 232 was scheduled to arrive in Singapore at 9 pm on Wednesday, but only arrived at 6.55 am yesterday.

Another SIA flight, from Singapore to London, was delayed by about four hours on Tuesday because of engine problems.

In that incident, the Boeing 747-400 turned back after take-off at 12.30 pm when one of its engines overheated.

The 219 passengers on SQ 320 were transferred to another plane, and departed for London at 4.45 pm.

At a media briefing yesterday morning, Mr Rick Clements, SIA's vice-president of public affairs, said SIA had been forced to use an alternative Sydney runway on Wednesday because another company's aircraft was blocking the main north-south runway. He said the China Eastern Airlines Corporation aircraft had experienced a hydraulic failure in its landing gear.

""This caused it to swerve on landing, and it became stuck on the side of the main runway, which caused a delay,'' Mr Clements said.

SIA's long-range Boeing 777-300 jet had to use a shorter runway to take off, which meant it had to carry less fuel.

This was not enough for the entire journey, so the plane, which was carrying 293 passengers, had to stop by at the Australian city of Cairns for re-fuelling.

""But, between Sydney and Cairns, the pilot observed a generator warning light, and the captain made that decision, as a precaution, to land in Brisbane where the engineering staff were available and experienced in maintaining the craft,'' Mr Clements said.

At Brisbane, an engine surge caused one of the turbine blades to be ejected, and it fell onto a grass verge.

""They checked out the aircraft, and it was declared safe to continue,'' Mr Clements said.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), November 02, 2000