Report: Jetstar Pacific violated maintenance regulations

HANOI — Top managers at Vietnamese budget airline Jetstar Pacific (JPA), part-owned by Australia’s Qantas, violated maintenance regulations, Vietnamese regulators say in a report obtained Wednesday.

HANOI — Top managers at Vietnamese budget airline Jetstar Pacific (JPA), part-owned by Australia’s Qantas, violated maintenance regulations, Vietnamese regulators say in a report obtained Wednesday.

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) said the three officials made mistakes in monitoring maintenance work and had not fulfilled JPA’s commitment to safety.

It identified the managers as former general director Luong Hoai Nam and two foreigners who headed the airline’s maintenance and technical quality sections. It did not say where the foreigners were from.

“Key JPA executives have to take responsibility for these systematic mistakes,” the CAAV said.

Hanoi police arrested Nam last week for alleged neglect of responsibility in the performance of his duty causing “serious consequences,” local media reports said.

He resigned from his post late last year, they said.

JPA is 27 percent owned by Australia’s Qantas Group, according to the airline’s website, which says the carrier was known as Pacific Airlines until May 2008. Its largest shareholder is the Vietnamese government.

CAAV deputy director Lai Xuan Thanh said JPA had made numerous mistakes which put flights at risk, according to the official Vietnam News Agency.

In its report, the CAAV said it discovered several problems including those with maintenance equipment, efficiency of the maintenance system and training of technicians.

It said it issued five maintenance-related fines to JPA in 2008-2009 and recommended that “urgent” measures be implemented.

“But reality showed that JPA did not fully implement regulations of the authorities,” the CAAV report said.

No one at the airline could be reached for comment.

Local media have not clearly explained the alleged neglect, which led to the arrest of former general director Nam, but the People’s Police newspaper reported JPA lost over 30 million dollars related to aviation fuel purchases.

In addition to the three JPA staff members referred to in the CAAV report, two executives have been ordered not to leave Vietnam as they help authorities explain how JPA lost 31 million dollars in fuel hedging, according to Qantas.

The two executives, JPA’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, had done nothing wrong, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said Friday.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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