A BUDGET airline that flew a faulty jet via Knock airport from Liverpool to New York after it was struck by lightning, was fined £5,000 (€6,300) yesterday.
Globespan Airways was fined at Southwark crown court in London after it used "optimistic interpretation" of the rules to clear the Boeing 757 to complete a 6,000-mile round trip from New York to Liverpool via Knock despite knowing there was a problem with its engine monitors after it had been struck by lightning.
The failure was discovered during an inbound flight from New York's JFK airport to Liverpool. Despite this, the Edinburgh-based airline breached Civil Aviation regulations by declaring the aircraft "serviceable" to fly later that day and allowing it to return to America via Knock.
Two indicators which measure engine thrust were out of action, leaving the crew to manually adjust the throttle, the court was told.
The company admitted offences under Britain's Air Navigation Order 2005 of flying a plane without a valid certification of airworthiness or a valid operator's certificate. It was also ordered to pay £4,280 costs.
James Curtis QC said the engine pressure ratio indicators (EPRs) did not provide "core" information but provided an "extra layer of information" for the pilot.
"I am told, and I am satisfied, that the failure of the EPRs on this flight did not render the aircraft unsafe and did not in any way endanger the public who were flying on the aircraft."
On the plane's landing in Liverpool, an investigation carried out by the airline's contract engineers, Storm Aviation, could neither identify the cause of the failure nor correct the fault.
This was reported to the airline's flight operations director who "rather optimistically" interpreted the rules governing which equipment the Civil Aviation Authority required to be functioning before a plane could depart on a flight.
By heading back across the Atlantic, the plane broke the law. In New York, it was examined again and the problem rectified. (Guardian service/PA)