Scottish budget carrier Flyglobespan is facing an unlimited fine after pleading guilty in a London magistrates’ court to two charges linked with an alleged safety breach.
The case, which has been brought by UK CAA, centres on claims that Flyglobespan operated a flight last year using an aircraft with both mandatory engine pressure gauges inoperative. The CAA also claims the airline failed to report the incident.
A CAA spokesman says the alleged safety breach invalidated the aircraft’s certificate of airworthiness. He adds: “It means that they were effectively flying without a valid air operator’s certificate [for that flight].”
Yesterday the case was heard at the City of Westminster magistrates’ court, although the judge has referred the case to Southwark crown court for sentencing. A date is yet to be fixed, but the crown court has the power to impose an unlimited fine on the carrier.
The CAA spokesman declines to comment on the hearing, as the sentence has not yet been delivered.
A Flyglobespan spokesman says the airline’s defence likened the failure to “the breakdown of a car’s cruise control system” and he welcomes the judge’s summing up comment that no passengers were endangered during the incident.
He says: “The airline was initially charged with three summons under the Air Navigation Order. It pleaded guilty to two of them and the third one was dropped.
“It had to be heard at the magistrates’ court to start off with. The magistrate’s court is limited to the amount which it can fine. We always knew it might go [to the crown court]. The airline has held its hands up to the mistakes it made. There have since been changes to the company structure.”
The spokesman says Flyglobespan worked closely with the CAA during the investigation of the incident and he stresses that the airline continued to operate its full programme, with full CAA approval, throughout the process.
He adds: “We welcome the magistrate’s acknowledgement that this was a mistake rather than a deliberate flouting of the rules.”
The incident involved a Boeing 757, operating between Liverpool and New York, via Knock in the west of Ireland last year.
Source: flightglobal.com's sister premium news site Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: Flight International
