Cape Air Grounds Cessna 402 Fleet

Cape Air, a local airline based in Hyannis, Mass., on Tuesday voluntarily grounded 34 of its 49 Cessna 402 piston twins that fly in New England, the Caribbean and Florida after experiencing three engine failures in three weeks. Two failures occurred in late May, and the third on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Boston Globe. All three airplanes landed safely with the remaining working engine. "Several recent engine abnormalities have led us to examine the wear-rate in one of the engine components," the company said in a "Travel Alert" posted on its Web site. "To eliminate any risk this could create, replacement parts will be installed in every airplane and we have brought in colleagues from the engine manufacturer and the FAA to support our effort." The airline said it is grounding the aircraft as a "conservative yet wise precaution" and expects to have them all flying again in about two weeks. Company spokeswoman Michelle Haynes told the Cape Cod Times it was premature to comment on how much the repairs would cost and whether the engine manufacturer, Continental Teledyne, would pay the costs. "The unusual wear pattern on these parts has to be fixed," Haynes told the Times. "It's a tough decision, but it's the only decision." The FAA told AVweb, "The engine manufacturer identified the problem and the carrier elected to voluntarily remove aircraft from service. Boston FSDO, Engine Directorate and the Atlanta ACO (which oversees Teledyne of Mobile, Alabama) are working with the carrier and monitoring the work and also providing any other assitance they can, No additional notifications have been undertaken by FAA at this time. The carrier is notifying FAA as the work is done."

 

Wow, nice to see an operator doing the right thing without a federal order to do so.

 

I guess I have to say I got a lot of respect for Cape Air management than. Not many corporation really care about safety these days. These days it's all about business.

 

Even more impressive given that they are going into the summer vacation season. It will definitely have an impact on their flying around the NE islands.

 

No corporation cares about safety. Except that it would cost more to get sued then to fix the problem.

 

...and keep the Fed's off their tails!!

 

Thats true Chance, but they usually still try to get by without doing anyting about it. Thats what Value Jet did. They just changed their name to Air Tran when every one found out they were unsafe.

 

Cape Air has really high TBO extensions through Continental. I worked for a company about 10 years ago that flew 402's. We were trying to get a TBO extension like they had. No such luck though. At the time I believe they had extensions up over 4000 hours. Sounds like maybe they are pushing them a little to far.

 

FYI Value Jet was not doing anything that every airline was or is not doing right now.. check your Facts before you get off at the Mouth.. Value Jet used contract Maintenance and EVERY AIRLINE have and are to this day USE contract Maint for everything from a Simple A check to a Heavy D check to Modification work.. How do I know cause I have been in this industry for 17 yes I am a A&P worked at Numerous MRO stations,, on the question of safety, I hope you should know that even the Legacy Carriers are outsourcing their Maint to South America and Asia. the public dont care where the maint is being done they just Care that they can Buy a Tix from NY to LA for Dirt Cheap, Get off of Air Tran back and Check out ALL Carriers who are doing the same thing

 

Do your research before you stat making *** Sum Tions

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