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James Debono
On 8 September Italy's civil aviation authority suspended Tunisian airline Tuninter after an investigation blamed the crash of a Tuninter plane off Sicily last month for the installation of the wrong type of fuel gauge. The Tunisian airline is often used in Malta. In fact two Tuninter flights are expected to take off next week. But the Maltese civil aviation authorities will not suspend Tuninter from Malta for now but they do not exclude to do so in the near future after Italy presents more details on this case to its European partners.
Details which have so far emerged on this case are shocking. The Italian Civil Aviation Authority based its decision to suspend Tuninter on the recommendation of the Italian national agency for flight safety, ANSV. The agency has been probing the 6 August crash of the Tuninter ATR-72 in which 16 people were killed.
ANSV found that the plane went down after running out of fuel, because the fuel gauge on the plane was the wrong model and did not show that the fuel tanks were nearly empty. He said that a fuel gauge designed for a smaller ATR-42 plane had been installed on the ATR-72 on Aug 5 in Tunisia and had been unable to read the larger aircraft's fuel load correctly. The fuel gauge was indicating more fuel than in the tanks.
The pilot thought there were 900 kilograms (1,984 pounds) for each motor when in fact there was none. Twenty-three people survived the crash, including the pilot. Some recounted how they heard one engine die then the other before the small propeller plane ditched into the sea. But the Maltese civil aviation authorities will not suspend Tuniter from Malta.
A spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Department told MaltaToday after basing itself on information received from the Italian Authorities and technical inspections carried out by Italy and Malta under the Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft Programme "in which practically all European States participate," the Department of Civil Aviation is not proposing at this time to restrict the traffic rights granted to Tuninter to operate flights to Malta."
The Maltese Civil Aviation authorities said they will continue to monitor the situation and co-ordinate with the European Joint Aviation Authorities and continue to assess foreign aircraft visiting Malta, including Tuninter, as part of Malta's commitment to the SAFA Programme.
Malta's position could change within the next few days if the Italian Authorities confirm their position officially through the SAFA reporting system.
"Following this and other technical information that may become available, the Maltese authorities will re-assess the situation to see whether there are grounds for it to suspend Tuninter's traffic rights to Malta"'
jdebono@newsworksltd.com
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