Airlines face new problem over seat safety

News at Gatwick 27/09/2010

Gatwick duty-free thieves sent to prison : September 2010 : Gatwick owners discuss sale of stake in airport

Regulators could force checks on 150,000 seats on a thousand planes.

Airlines look set to clash with regulators over the cost for carrying out safety checks on more than 100,000 passenger seats following a debate over suspect safety data. The proposal to order safety checks on seats produced by Japanese firm Koito comes some seven months after the company admitted it had altered designs without following established procedures and had falsified the results of safety tests.

On Thursday, safety agencies in Europe and the USA said they were proposing to order safety checks on seats produced by Koiti. The mandatory checks were thought to involved 150,000 seats, on 1,000 aircraft, mostly those manufactured by Airbus and Boeing.

The proposal is subject to a consultation exercise slated to take two months. The control study is designed to examine how well seats prevent injury during the accelerated spread of a fire or in an emergency landing. The exercise would involve more than 40,000 seats installed on 278 aircraft registered in the USA. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the exercise was expected to cost 875,000 just for US airlines.

Thai Airways has already replaced Koito as a supplier of seating. It says it intends to sue Koito for compensation over delayed delivery of seats.

Gatwick duty-free thieves sent to prison : September 2010 : Gatwick owners discuss sale of stake in airport

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