The US Federal Aviation Administration has been asked by the Japanese ministry of transport to investigate maintenance practices at Northwest Airlines, following a series of incidents reported at capital Tokyo's Narita Airport.
The ministry's Japan civil-aviation bureau says that it is increasingly concerned by the number of incidents and technical failures being reported by Northwest, such as in-flight diversions to and aborted take-offs at Narita.
According to the latest bureau records, Northwest has already filed five irregular flight reports at Narita since the start of the year. This compares to three logged by United Airlines and none by Japan Airlines or All Nippon Airways between 1 January and 19 March.
Northwest's most recent incident occurred on 11 March, when a Boeing 747 en route to Saipan was forced to return to Narita, after a crack was detected in the skin of aircraft's port wing root.
Northwest has still to respond officially to the complaints. An airline source says that it is no coincidence that the move comes at time when the US and Japanese authorities are in the middle of renewed bilateral negotiations.
Source: Flight International
