No "problematic" Boeing planes in Shanghai: company officials

No Boeing aircraft in Shanghai are fitted with outdated insulation blankets, according to local industry sources.

Shanghai Airlines, one of the major airway operators in Shanghai, has Boeing aircraft account for a majority of its fleet. All of the planes were imported after 1989, a company official said.

Another Shanghai-based operator, the China Eastern Airlines, whose fleet comprises mainly by Airbus aircraft, has only two planes with the insulation blankets. One of these planes is owned by its subsidiary, Yunnan Airlines in southwest China, company officials announced.

Both planes have been overhauled and proclaimed safe by the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) and the Boeing company, the officials said.

Earlier this week local media reported that the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) ordered operators of some Boeing aircraft models to replace or modify certain insulation blankets during the next six years to reduce the risk of fire spreading.

The insulation blankets are used in 27 Boeing aircraft in China.

"The problem was caused by new and tougher standards and there is actually no safety problem, "Liu Jiang, vice-president of Boeing China Inc., told a Beijing-based newspaper Thursday.

Liu's statement was echoed by CAAC officials. They said late last week there was "no safety problems" in the 27 Boeing aircraft fitted with the outdated insulation blankets.

The aircraft insulation blankets, which are fitted between the outer and inner shells of the planes, protect the passengers and crew from engine noise and high-altitude frigid temperatures, the newspaper said.

The FAA directive was prompted by a discovery in 2002 that some insulation blankets, which are coated with a film called AN-26, no longer meet new standards for preventing the spread of fire, Liu was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

There are about 1,600 Boeing 727, 737, 747, 757 and 767 aircraft worldwide that use the outdated type of insulation blankets. All of the 1,600 planes were produced between 1981 and 1988.

According to sources with the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Plant, the new-generation horizontal stabilizers Shanghai provides for Boeing 737s are not equipped with this type of insulation.

As an international air hub, Shanghai opened flights to 162 cities at home and abroad. Its two airports, Pudong and Hongqiao, recorded a combined annual handling capacity of 35.91 million passengers last year, up 45 percent year-on-year. The capacity will go further up to 110 million passengers in 2020, local industry sources predict.

Source: Xinhua