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Friday December 22 10:29 PM ET Grounding, Fire Cause Air Travel Chaos in Australia

By Paul Tait

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Ansett Australia grounded six Boeing 767-200 planes for safety inspections on Saturday, the latest of several aircraft and airport problems to have disrupted Christmas travel plans for thousands of passengers.

Ansett, one of Australia's two main carriers, said it had grounded the 767-200s for unspecified engineering inspections. It was not known when the planes would go back into service.

``This decision has been taken in response to an engineering directive to carry out a precautionary inspection of several areas of the aircraft,'' Ansett said in a statement.

``It is not yet known when all six aircraft will be back in operation but Ansett will be working to achieve that as quickly as possible,'' it said.

A spokeswoman for Ansett, an Air New Zealand unit, told Reuters she could not say whether the decision was taken by Ansett alone or at the direction of Boeing.

``This has come at the worst possible time for us, the staff are very, very busy but it's not something which is going to be fixed today,'' spokesman Geoff Lynch said.

``It's likely thousands of passengers will be affected, although when we say affected it may just be a matter of delay.''

Control Tower Fire

As well as disrupting domestic flights, the inspections led to the cancellation of one Melbourne to Hong Kong flight and one from Sydney to Bali.

``In order to minimize the impact of this decision, the company is seeking additional aircraft for short-term use and will seek urgent approval to operate some services outside of normal schedules,'' the Ansett statement said.

``Where possible, passengers will be transferred to alternative flights,'' it said.

The grounding of the Ansett aircraft came a day after Sydney Airport was shut briefly by a fire in the main air traffic control tower.

The fire was extinguished quickly but the airport was closed for about 30 minutes and 12 staff were evacuated to a second tower. The blaze caused long delays for thousands of travelers in Sydney before flights returned to schedule.

Australia's second major carrier, Qantas Airways also suffered a safety scare on Friday when a fuel leak on a short-haul BAE-146 forced the pilot to abort a flight from Adelaide to Canberra.

Some of the 46 passengers aboard QF 864 noticed what they thought was smoke trailing from one wing and alerted the pilot. He returned to Adelaide about 15 minutes after taking off.

Inspections by engineers revealed fuel had been leaking from the wing, a Qantas spokeswoman said.

She said the aircraft did not make an emergency landing and the leak was repaired overnight.

Qantas is 25 percent owned by British Airways, while Singapore Airlines Ltd. has a 25 percent stake in Air New Zealand.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), December 22, 2000

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Newsday

Qantas Plane Makes Emergency Stop

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- A Qantas plane with 46 passengers on board made an emergency landing after it began leaking fuel, airline officials said.

The plane had taken off from Adelaide airport late Friday and was on its way to Canberra. But soon after takeoff, passengers reported to the flight crew what they mistakenly thought was smoke near the fuselage.

A Qantas spokeswoman said the pilot of the BAE 146 immediately turned the plane back to the southern city of Adelaide. She said it had been in the air for less than 15 minutes when the emergency occurred.

An investigation was under way to determine the cause of the leak.

AP-NY-12-23-00 0326EST< 

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), December 23, 2000.

I heard last night on the radio that Air Canada had cancelled 800 flights. Can anyone confirm this?

-- David Williams (DAVIDWILL@prodigy.net), December 24, 2000.

David, they say they did cancel a large number (800 sounds about right) of flights because of severe storms in December. Thus their profits are down and they'll be laying-off staff through attrition "and other means," and they'll be increasing their fares in January. They mentioned that increased fuel costs are also playing a negative role in their operation.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), December 24, 2000.