SOLOMON
Airlines is hoping that Dash 8 would resume normal services today.
This follows the arrival of an engineer from Airlines PNG in Papua New Guinea to fix a mechanical problem related to the aircraft’s hydraulic problems which occurred on Saturday while the aircraft was on its way to GIZO.
As a result the aircraft could not land and returned to Honiara.
Solomon Airlines had the Dash8 serviceable on Saturday morning and it operated the first commercial flight to Santa Cruz and return with full loads as part of trying to recover the backlog of people there.
On the second trip to Gizo, hydraulic problems occurred.
Engineers have identified the problem as a Hydraulic hose and fittings problem and require parts from Airlines PNG in Port Moresby to fix the issue.
An engineer arrived with the parts yesterday.
HF radio problems still persist and engineers in Honiara from Airlines PNG are still looking at fixing this problem once and for all to see if they can get this to operate more proficiently than it has been.
With the hydraulic parts arriving yesterday, Solomon Airlines is hopeful to have the DASH8 ready for service by today for operations to return.
Subject to the aircraft being brought back to full operation, the airline said it was planning many extra flights to recover the back logs from both the Eastern and the Western routes.
The airline continued to apologise for the lack of a serviceable aircraft but said that requests to have another aircraft sent to Solomon Islands have not been successful with Airlines PNG and further indicated that it is hopeful that when this aircraft goes for its maintenance in Port Moresby on 31st January, another replacement aircraft may be possible to return the airlines’ services to some sort of normal operations.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
