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Banner file photo
Cape Air flights will largely remain on the ground until counterweights can be replaced in the planes’ crankshafts. |
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Cape Air voluntarily grounds flights
By Sue Harrison
Banner Staff
Cape Air has confirmed that it has cancelled the majority of its flights in order to change a part in the engine in all 49 planes that it flies. The cancellation is in effect now and planes will be brought back on line as soon as each replacement is finished. The company hopes to be back to a full schedule of service by early next week.
Late Tuesday night, Michelle Haynes, director of communications for Cape Air, said that, following several recent engine malfunctions, airline mechanics were instructed to take the engines apart to find the problem. The malfunctions were very unusual but did not lead to any safety issues when they occurred. What the mechanics located was “an abnormally fast wear pattern on the counterweight of the crankshaft,” Haynes said. Dan Wolf, president of Cape Air and a certified mechanic in his own right, personally took part in the tear-downs and inspections.
Once the problem was identified, Wolf spoke with the FAA and the manufacturer of the Cessnas Cape Air uses and made the decision to replace all the counterweights in all the planes as a pre-emptive safety move.
“We decided to ramp down the airline, not because we were told to or because of any incident that has happened but because we believe this is the right thing to do,” Haynes said. “We are working around the clock to get the parts. Fortunately it can be fixed, we just have to take the time to do it.”
Haynes said that some planes have already been worked on and 25 percent are back in service. She said that the airline has hundreds of bookings and suggests that passengers log on to the website at www.flycapeair.com to check individual flights for the remainder of the week.
The slowdown occurs just as the annual Provincetown International Film Festival begins and will surely lead to serious scrambling as festival organizers work to get filmmakers, honorees and festival-goers in and out of town.
“This is one of the most painful weeks in our 18-year history,” Haynes said. “We expect to have full operations by early next week. This was an extraordinarily hard decision but the right one.”
The Banner will follow this story throughout the week and will post any additional information on our website daily updates at www.provincetownbanner.com/articles as it becomes available.
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Jun 14th, 2007