More problems for Swissair’s MD-11s

Swissair has confirmed that jet engines on one of its MD-11 planes have broken down twice in the last three weeks causing flights from Nairobi and Los Angeles to abort take-off.

Swissair has confirmed that jet engines on one of its MD-11 planes have broken down twice in the last three weeks causing flights from Nairobi and Los Angeles to abort take-off.

A spokesman for the national carrier confirmed that a fault with the rear engine caused the plane’s take-off from Nairobi last Thursday to be aborted. 180 passengers were on board the aircraft at the time.

The same plane was forced to turn back shortly after take-off from Los Angeles on January 27 after the pilot reported that the left engine had failed. Specialists were flown out from Zürich to California to change the defective engine.

Swissair said it was an unfortunate coincidence that the same plane had developed technical problems with two different engines over such a short period of time.

The airline also announced the introduction of a new in-flight entertainment system to replace the one specially developed for Swissair, which was switched off for security reasons following the crash of Flight 111 in 1998 Burnt cables were found in the plane’s wreckage although no formal link was made to the cause of the accident.

The Swissair MD-11 crashed off the coast of Canada in September 1998 killing all 229 people on board.

From staff and wire reports