Half of Adelaide light planes remain grounded

As many as half the South Australia-based light aircraft grounded by the fuel contamination crisis remain in workshops at Parafield Airport, unable to fly.

Charter operator Wayne Grant now has two of his three affected planes back in the air, but the third awaits the arrival of new parts, and he says several other companies are in the same situation.

Thousands of aircraft across Australia were grounded after the discovery of contaminated Mobil aviation fuel.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has launched a class action suit seeking damages from Mobil, and the company yesterday publicised details of a compensation offer.

Mr Grant says the cost of testing and cleaning all affected aircraft, and a $15 million program to support companies in immediate financial difficulty, are included in the offer.

"That's fine and reasonable," Mr Grant said.

"The issue that's yet to be contended with is the compensation package for lost profits and lost revenue, and it's going to be very interesting to see what develops on that in the future."

Link:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/sa/metsa-5feb2000-8.htm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 05, 2000

Answers

The plot thickens...widens?

Sunday Telegraph

Excerpt:

Plane Fuel Fears Widen

Mobile may have been supplying contaminated fuel before the crisis that grounded almost all of Australia's light aircraft.

CASA has revealed that several of the aircraft that did not use the contaminated fuel have also tested positive to contamination.

It could mean that Mobil had periods of contamination prior to November and December of last year.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), February 06, 2000.

See Paula Gordon's contribution on the following thread:

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002VUL

[snip...]

"According to an authoritative source, companies producing fuel additives, base chemical producers, complex hydrocarbon solvent producers, and nuclear power plants are among those likely to be most vulnerable (and in many cases) are among those proving to be vulnerable to Y2K and embedded system-related problems.

According to a software engineer familiar with the situation, the airplane fuel problem in Australia involved the sticking of a valve and inaccurate computer data."

[...end snip]

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), February 07, 2000.