FlySSC From France, joined Aug 2003, 7313 posts, RR: 61 Posted (4 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 6 hours ago) and read 4311 times:
AIR IVOIRE Airbus A321 F-OIVU may be the first A321 to be scrapped soon ...
Last month this aircraft suffered a VERY hard landing (almost 3g force on impact !!!), but the airline continued to operate it for 10 days without any further verifications.
During a routine check at Paris-ORY by AF maintenance staff, the heavy damages caused to the main landing gear, cell fuselage, and many other vital parts were discovered and despite the wish of Air Ivoire to fly back the bird to ABJ to repair it (!) the decision was taken by both Airbus and AF Mx to ground it.
It is currently stored at ORY, inside the AF maintenance hangar. According to the Mx staff I met this afternoon, the plane needs costly fixing and a complete D check. As the overall cost could raise higher than the value of the plane itself it could be simply written off and scrapped ...
F-OIVU is msn 1017.
Leased from GECAS as G-OOAJ, it was operated by Air 2000 (then First Choice Airways) from May 1999 to May 2004 and then returned to lessor.
Operated a first time by AIR IVOIRE as F-OIVU from Jun.2004 to FEB.2005, it was transferred to AIGLE AZUR for 10 months and returned to AIR IVOIRE in Dec 2005.
It would be the second A321 to be written off (First one was Transasia Airlines msn 602, B22603 ) and the first one to be scrapped ... sad !
KL577 From Netherlands, joined Oct 2006, 750 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (4 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 4171 times:
Quoting FlySSC (Thread starter):
Last month this aircraft suffered a VERY hard landing (almost 3g force on impact !!!), but the airline continued to operate it for 10 days without any further verifications.
I always thought aircraft were routinely checked immediately after hard landings.
Do you know where this landing occured and in what circumstances? In West-Africa Air Ivoire is considered a relatively safe airline. Many people use it for coast-hopping flights, e.g. COO-DL A .
CHRISBA777ER From UK - England, joined Mar 2001, 5964 posts, RR: 63 Reply 3, posted (4 years 9 months 3 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 3771 times:
Quoting FlySSC (Thread starter): As the overall cost could raise higher than the value of the plane itself it could be simply written off and scrapped ...
A 1999 build A321 with the highest MTOW-rated software and CFM56 engines is worth between US$35-40m by my guess.
I find it hard to imagine that a complete D check costs even 15% of this figure. Even a completely new gear wouldnt even come close to this.
If she is truly to be written off then she must have been overstressed (see the IB A320 at BIO) in which case a D check and new gear is totally irrelevent.
If they are talking about a D check and new gear then they'll fix her.
What do you mean you dont have any bourbon? Do you know how far it is to Houston? What kind of airline is this???
Scouseflyer From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2006, 3255 posts, RR: 10 Reply 4, posted (4 years 9 months 3 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 3742 times:
Quoting FlySSC (Thread starter): It would be the second A321 to be written off (First one was Transasia Airlines msn 602, B22603 ) and the first one to be scrapped
What happened to that one, if it was scrapped but not written off?
CHRISBA777ER From UK - England, joined Mar 2001, 5964 posts, RR: 63 Reply 5, posted (4 years 9 months 3 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 3678 times:
Quoting Scouseflyer (Reply 4): Quoting FlySSC (Thread starter):
It would be the second A321 to be written off (First one was Transasia Airlines msn 602, B22603 ) and the first one to be scrapped
What happened to that one, if it was scrapped but not written off?
Landed on top of some construction vehicles at Tainan IIRC. Nobody killed but it smashed the fuselage up pretty good.
She was written off and scrapped.
What do you mean you dont have any bourbon? Do you know how far it is to Houston? What kind of airline is this???
NA From Germany, joined Dec 1999, 9614 posts, RR: 10 Reply 7, posted (4 years 9 months 3 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 3616 times:
Btw Air Ivoire has just leased a South African 737-200. If thats meant as a cheap temporary replacement I can´t tell. Only thing thats clear: It´ll guzzle a lot more fuel per pax.
Fraport From Germany, joined Jul 2005, 137 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (4 years 9 months 3 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 3568 times:
Quoting FlySSC (Thread starter): Last month this aircraft suffered a VERY hard landing (almost 3g force on impact !!!), but the airline continued to operate it for 10 days without any further verifications.
... despite the wish of Air Ivoire to fly back the bird to ABJ to repair it (!) the decision was taken by both Airbus and AF Mx to ground it.
This sounds scary! Maybe it would be a good idea to ground their whole fleet and not only this aircraft.
NA From Germany, joined Dec 1999, 9614 posts, RR: 10 Reply 10, posted (4 years 9 months 3 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 3559 times:
Quoting Fraport (Reply 9): This sounds scary! Maybe it would be a good idea to ground their whole fleet and not only this aircraft.
At least there should be an investigation. To insist on flying with an apparently totally unsafe aircraft is a serious matter. Not reporting a very heavy landing is as well.
Flying Belgian From Belgium, joined Jun 2001, 2360 posts, RR: 10 Reply 11, posted (4 years 9 months 3 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 3478 times:
Hi FLYSSC !
I've had a chat with an AF captain last week in ABJ. One of his good friends was fleet manager Airbus 321 with VU.
He did tell me that the main issue was financial, so I'm surprised to hear about a write-off.
Though it was well known that the landing had been very very rough...
But the cost of a complete D-check + new landing gear may be fatal for this bird I assume.
BTW, is Air Comet operating for VU with an A313 (MRS+ORY ?)
Because I also heard that VU was to lease a Jordanian 767 ??
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