Ladislaus Matindi, the ATCL director general, told journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the plane was recently in Germany for maintenance. It was used for 200 hours in the country since it was delivered from maintenance, he said.
Up to that point the plane did not show signs of technical failure but then it developed a technical fault mid-air, with the passengers scenting smoke that was traced to a fault in one of its engines, he affirmed.
The plane which was heading to Mbeya, a two hour trip, took off in Dar es Salaam at 6:00 am on Saturday and after half an hour the fault was noticed, as the engine got very hot and started emitting smoke that entered the air conditioning system, he explained.
The smoke continued for five minutes while the pilot and crew examined the situation, so the pilot decided to turn off the faulty engine to avoid harm, he said.
As the air started clearing, the crew informed the passengers of the mishap, and further, that the plane was to be rerouted back to Dar.
After the plane arrived in Dar es Salaam, 104 passengers agreed to travel using another ATCL plane while 18 passengers requested to change the day for them to travel.
"It is true that the engine malfunctioned and smoke entered the plane, but there was no fire and the passengers were not handed breathing equipment,” he said.
Online entries said that smoke filled the cabin, making it difficult to breathe, a situation that lasted less than five minutes, which the CEO said was a routine problem.
Online discussion affirms routine emission of smoke on take-off, while emitting smoke after half hour duration of the flight is not a common occurrence. The CEO said that the public must understand that it is an aircraft and situations of malfunctioning are not surprising.
“If a malfunction occurs, safety measures should be given priority and we at ATCL our priority is the safety of passengers," he elaborated, stressing that none of the 122 passengers on board suffered any harm
Emmanuel Twai, the firm’s head of security, said failure is expected on any vessel, but what is essential is to observe safety precautions when it happens.
The pilot of the Airbus was right to return the plane to Dar es Salaam so that the plane's engineers could check the problem and work on it before starting another journey, he stated.
"The action taken by the pilot was absolutely correct because if they had gone to Mbeya, the plane might not have received the same quick services as it did here in Dar es Salaam where there are all engineers and aviation professionals," he said.
He said that not every error that occurs during flight is notified to the public and that has been done to remove the panic in the community about civil aviation.
"When incidents like this happen, we have internal procedures to monitor and deal with them, that's why you won't hear everything, we have come forward to inform the public after seeing others misleading about what happened," the CEO intoned.
While ATCL senior staff explained at length the manner in which the company handles flight emergencies, certain observers wondered whether the quality of maintenance in Germany was up to standard, and a curious fault like emitting smoke in mid-air is noticed after being in use for 200 hours.
Another dimension of the matter is the quality of the aircraft itself, in which case a possible problem with feasibility of maintenance, its likely duration after billions of shillings are spent on extensive maintenance.
_0.jpg?itok=QU87XW8D){kind=tracking}
.jpeg?itok=vCj6bCRe)
