El Al is conducting exhaustive safety tests on its Boeing jumbo jets, both on the ground and in the air, in the aftermath of recent fatal accidents involving the American-built aircraft.
The company’s engineers are using X-ray and other sophisticated equipment to search for invisible cracks in the Pratt & Whitney engines that power the Boeing 737. Such faults are believed responsible for the fire that destroyed a British Airways 737 at Manchester Airport last month with the loss of 50 lives.
Guided by the Boeing company’s own crash data analysis, El Al’s overhaul unit at Ben Gurion Airport is also examining and testing the engines of the larger 747 jets. Last month’s Japan Airlines crash that took more than 500 lives and the Air India plane that crashed off the coast of Ireland in June were both Boeing 747s.
“We religiously implement all of the bulletins regarding safety regardless of cost,” Arieh Fruchter, head of El Al’s overhaul unit, told The Jerusalem Post. With far fewer Israelis flying abroad this summer because of the steep travel tax, El Al cannot afford to ground its planes in peak season.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned that some maintenance work is being carried out in flight. Top technicians aboard the planes monitor their performance while air-borne.
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