Qantas' engineers' union has called on the airline to ground its entire fleet of Boeing 737s after discovering a structural crack on a second of its aircraft overnight.
Qantas said on Wednesday it was undertaking immediate inspections of 33 of its Boeing 737 NGs which had operated more than 22,600 flights after it found a crack on one of its jet's "pickle fork", which attaches the wings to the body.
The cracks - which Qantas said do not immediately compromise safety - are a worldwide issue affecting Boeing's popular 737 NG model aircraft. Qantas has 75 Boeing 737s, which operate the majority of its domestic flights.
The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association said on Thursday morning that a crack in a second aircraft's primary wing structure was discovered overnight, and called for the grounding of all 75 of Qantas' 737 aircraft.
Qantas would not confirm whether or not it had found a second crack.
"These aircraft should be kept safe on the ground until urgent inspections are completed and advice in relation to the ongoing nature of the wing cracks is confirmed by Boeing and the US Federal Airworthiness Authority," said ALAEA federal secretary Steve Purvinas.
"Boeing had previous thought the cracks were only occurring on aircraft with over 35,000 landings, the issue has now been identified on two Qantas aircraft with as few as 27,000 landings and Qantas are yet to inspect the majority of its 737 fleet."
Qantas' head of engineering Chris Snook said calls for a grounding were "completely irresponsible."
"Safety regulators in Australia and the United States require the checks on our 737s to be completed over the next seven months. Our checks are well advanced and will be finished by tomorrow - months ahead of schedule."
The US Federal Aviation Authority on October 2 ordered inspections within seven days of all 737 NGs that had operated more than 30,000 flights. Planes with more than 22,600 flight cycles needed to be inspected within the next 1000 flights. That equates to about seven months' operation for Qantas, but it speed up that timeframe after discovering the first crack.
Boeing said on October 11 that 38 planes worldwide had been discovered with pickle fork cracks and grounded for repair. The cracking issue with Boeing 737 NGs is unrelated to the worldwide grounding of the jet's updated model, the 737 MAX, following two deadly crashes.
- SMH/The Age
