A PLANE bound for Tunisia had to return to Portela airport in Lisbon yesterday (Thursday) morning after developing a fault.
Fire engines and tow trucks were on standby as the Airbus, operated by White, approached the runway to land at 9.15am.
A problem had been detected with the plane’s hydraulic system, which prompted the pilot to decide to return to Portela. Once the plane had landed safely, passengers were stranded on board for another two hours because of a breakdown of the vehicle that was due to tow the plane off the runway.
Onboard flight Wht 874 were 227 passengers, 12 in business class and the rest in economy class, plus a flight crew of seven.
At 3pm, repairs were completed on the hydraulic system and the same plane took off with the same passengers to Tunisia, where it landed safely.
António Matos, a spokesman for OMNI – Aviação e Tecnologia, the company which owns White, gave his assurances that this was the first time this Airbus 310 has broken down since it was purchased by the company in September 2006.
“Maintenance is guaranteed by TAP engineers and premises,” said António Matos, adding, “If they had continued to Tunisia, the technicians wouldn’t have had the same resources.”
With regards to the breakdown of the tow vehicle, António Matos, who is also a spokesman for the ground staff company Groundforce, said: “Unfortunately there was a breakdown, but there was no need for alarm.”
White became an air travel company in November 2004 through the restructuring of the air travel company Yes, which was created in 2000 by TAP.
After a series of breakdowns to its only plane, Yes was unable to recover its image and TAP created White.
This new air travel company was bought soon after by OMNI- Aviação e Tecnologia for five million euros.
