Air France A340 Flew With Missing Screws After Shop Visit

2011-11-29

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- An Airbus SAS A340 operated by Air France-KLM Group was halted in Boston in mid-November after about 30 screws were found to be missing from a protective panel, the airline said.
The long-range plane had undergone maintenance in China, at Taeco-Taikoo Aircraft Engineering and left the facility Nov. 10. It had stopped at Air France’s hub at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for three days, and the absence of the screws went unnoticed until several days later in Boston, the carrier said.
The panel concerned is located between the fuselage and wing and serves to reduce drag by smoothing out edges.
“At no moment was the safety of the flight in question,” said spokeswoman Marina Tymen in a telephone interview from Paris, where Air France is based.
Taeco is based at Gaoqi International airport in Xiamen, and controlled by Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co., or Haeco, with a 58.55 percent stake. Boeing Co., Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Japan Airlines Co. and Xiamen Aviation Industry Co. are also shareholders.
Customers that have their aircraft serviced at Taeco include British Airways, AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, Korean Air and Deutsche Lufthansa AG, according to Taeco’s website.
“We are in the process of gathering information from our colleagues, which may take some time,” Sharon Lun, a spokeswoman for Haeco, said in an e-mail.
The incident was previously reported by an internal union bulletin.