Air Algérie Company: “Several Incidents Involving Aircraft And Scathing Financial Losses”

The Algerian air fleet has been subjected to wholesale incidents in recent days, causing damage to a number of aircraft, which raised many questions about the reality of what is happening in the company, especially after a recent correspondence to the maintenance department officials showed a lack of monitoring and maintenance.
The first incident occurred during an international flight from Batna Mustapha Ben Boulaid airport on Wednesday, and was outside the will of the company according to the images posted on social platforms, which showed the Boeing 737 being damaged in the forefront because of a collision with a flock of birds a few minutes shortly after take-off.
The pilot was forced to return to Batna airport after about 20 minutes of flight to land on the ground of a modern center amid major panic in the middle of the passengers but without injuries.
According to the photographs published on the social platforms, the aircraft was markedly damaged by a collision with a bird squadron and sustained a serious scratch on the front of the plane.
The second incident happened the night before yesterday, just before a Boeing 737-600 took off towards the Ivorian capital of Abidjan, where a medical aid truck for the left-wing passengers collided with the plane.
According to videos seen by “Echorouk”, the collision caused a crack in the wing of the Boeing 737-600, and the crack was 30 centimeters long.
The flight bound for Abidjan was delayed by several hours. The passengers remained on board the aircraft as maintenance workshops were requested in order to carry out the necessary repairs.
A few days ago, the Airline Company’s Directorate of Quality and Safety sent letters to the Directorate of the maintenance department, in which it spoke about the defects and faults in aircraft, with on focus an aircraft that left the maintenance workshop without any parts of its external structure.
Recently, the same directorate sent a telegram to the maintenance department, talking about the lapses and duress in an aircraft that left the maintenance department after undergoing repair work, and eventually discovered the lapses on the Algiers flight.
Furthermore, the wing of a Saudi Arabian aircraft was also punctured by an Algerian Airbus A330 airliner on the ground floor of Houari Boumediene airport a few weeks ago.
Parts of an electric generator on the floor were taken off, hitting the structure of the Algerian airliner.
Air Algérie’s statement said nonetheless that its pilots had been well-formed to act in the event of a collision and had always shown professionalism and respect for safety procedures.
According to the same statement, the Air Algérie pilots have strictly respected the procedures that require the rapid return of the flight (QRF) as safety is the number one priority of the company, noting that about 6 thousand collision cases of aircraft with flocks of birds were recorded in the world in one year.