Malaysia Airlines has defended its engineering and maintenance (E&M) arm in light of various media reports regarding maintenance issues related to Qantas aircraft.
MAS said in a statement that the arm was a certified approved Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul organisation by 31 national aviation authorities including the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, European Aviation Safety Agency and the United States Federal Aviation Administration.
MAS chief executive officer Datuk Seri Idris Jala clarified that in an incident where a midair rupture of an oxygen bottle in a Qantas Boeing 747-400 resulted in an emergency landing in Manila, Qantas had confirmed that the aircraft was maintained in Australia and not in Malaysia as alleged by a senior Qantas pilot.
He said that in the incident where a Qantas Boeing 737-400 was grounded in Melbourne because of noise from an air-conditioning fault, Qantas had stated that the fault was unrelated to heavy maintenance checks done in Malaysia as mentioned in news reports.
He said that in the course of the maintenance, defects were found and rectified.