Will investigate the case that the Airbus A321 plane is too concave and still flies to Phu Quoc

Reporting to the Ministry of Transport, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam said that it had set up a team to investigate and verify the cause of the Airbus A321 plane’s case, which had a concave shell beyond the permissible limit but still flew from Ho Chi Minh City to Phu Quoc.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), on April 17, there was a high-security incident (level C) on Vietnam Airlines flight VN 1823 from Tan Son Nhat to Phu Quoc.

Specifically, after rolling into the apron, the technical staff checked the Airbus A321 aircraft with number VN-A603, discovered that the aircraft had some dents at the back of the fuselage.

Specifically, the position of the frame and strut on the left side of the plane has an indentation 67cm long, 50cm wide, 1cm deep; the position of the access door, the right strut has an indentation 64cm long, 54cm wide, 1.1cm deep; The auxiliary engine air intake cover has some cracks at the corner.

Preliminary assessment of damage beyond permissible limits according to the maintenance manual of the aircraft manufacturer Airbus. As a result, the aircraft temporarily stopped flying to assess, repair, and overcome damage.

After receiving incident information, the Civil Aviation Administration, Southern Airport Authority at Tan Son Nhat and Phu Quoc airports approached the aircraft, preliminary assessment of the damage, and extracted security camera data. , records of the relevant staff to serve the investigation.

According to the Civil Aviation Administration, the initial verification process showed that before flying VN 1823 on April 17, Airbus aircraft registration number VN-A603 was maintained in the tail area with the help of a forklift. (platform) on the night of April 16 at Tan Son Nhat airport.

The initial cause is believed to be due to the operator when pulling the forklift out of the maintenance location improperly, resulting in the safety shield on the forklift floor colliding and causing dents in the aircraft shell.

However, the technical staff and the captain who performed the pre-flight inspection did not discover this defect until after the post-flight inspection at Phu Quoc airport.