Sunair Grounded... Again

 

Regional airline Sunair has been grounded over concerns about the airline’s safety. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) told Stuff Travel it was responding to aviation-related concerns regarding the maintenance and safety of the Tauranga-based airline’s aircraft. The Director of Civil Aviation has suspended the airworthiness certificates for aircraft operated by Sunair for safety reasons while the concerns are addressed.

Sunair flies to Great Barrier Island, Gisborne, Hamilton, Kaitāia, Napier, Tauranga, Wairoa, Whakatāne and Whitianga.

Sunair’s chief executive, Doug Roberts, told Stuff Travel that two and a half weeks ago, the CAA carried out a maintenance audit and they found some issues concerning the airworthiness of the aircraft.

“Concerns about some of the paperwork that has to follow the maintenance practice in terms of errors and omissions. So they withdrew the certificate for 10 working days in order to get the issues rectified,” he said.

Most of the routes affected are on the East Coast - Wairoa, Napier, Gisborne and Air Gisborne will operate those services, Roberts said.

“We will work through these issues with the CAA. Our position is that they are not critical [issues] and it is really about improving the rigour of our maintenance. Once it is rectified, I have no concerns about the safety of the operation.

“We regret the inconvenience to our customers and are working at pace to get the issues rectified.”

Source: Stuff

Sunair have been using Air Gisborne's Cessna 172 ZK-DXF and the Taranaki Air Ambulance Beech Super King ZK-ZZA to maintain the medical staff flights to Kaitaia.

In other Sunair news their Piper PA23 Aztec ZK-ECM is listed for sale on Trade Me.