Swissair gives all-clear to grounded Airbuses
Swissair has given the all-clear to nine Airbus A330's ordered grounded by France's civil aviation authority on safety grounds.
Swissair spokesman, Urs Peter Näf, said on Saturday that the nine planes which had been checked would be free to fly again.
The Swiss carrier cancelled several long-haul flights on Friday after French authorities grounded various production series of the Airbus A330 plane powered by Pratt & Whitney engines.
Passengers scheduled to fly Swissair from Geneva and Zurich to New York saw their flights scrapped on Friday, but by Saturday the airline had managed to find replacement planes to honour its schedule.
The problem involves cracks in mounting nuts that secure the engines of the Airbus aircraft to the wing.
"We don't believe it's a widespread problem, but we're very cautious in these things," said Mark Sullivan, a spokesman for Pratt, a unit of United Technologies.
The consortium said that A330's powered by other engine makes were not involved. In 1997, other A330's had to be grounded because of a fault with their Rolls-Royce engines.
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