The Royal Air Force has temporarily grounded all its British Aerospace Hawk jet-trainer aircraft for inspection after a fault was discovered during "routine maintenance". After checks which take about 4h per aircraft, inspected aircraft are already flying again, the UK Ministry of Defence said on 6 February. The fault, says the RAF, consisted of a crack in the bearing housing of the tailplane's hydraulic power-control unit (PCU). BAe has advised other Hawk users to inspect the PCUs of their aircraft before their next flights, but says that it has not determined whether a PCU modification will be required. The US Navy's Hawk derivative, the McDonnell Douglas Goshawk, is not affected, BAe says.
Source: Flight International
