Pannenserie at government airlines: Ministry checks whether Lufthansa subsidiary has made maintenance errors

Following the dangerous crash landing of a government airman earlier this week in Berlin-Schönefeld, Federal Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen is investigating whether there are systemic problems with the maintenance of the so-called White Fleet by a subsidiary of Lufthansa. Already on Wednesday, therefore, the General Aviation Security was instructed to investigate the accident on Tuesday but also several other incidents of the past few months.

The investigation by the highest flight investigator of the Bundeswehr is about the question of whether the external maintenance of the government jets was not worked with the necessary care. Investigators already suspect that the massive problems of a government aircraft of the type "Global 5000" on Tuesday were caused by incorrect wiring of spoilers on the wings of the jet.

Dangerous inclinations

Since the business jet came directly from the maintenance of Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services, it is reasonable to assume that it was not carefully worked there. The wrong adjustment of the spoiler was extremely dangerous. Thus, the pilots were already in the air in dangerous inclinations, it even came to a stall. In the emergency landing, the jet missed the runway, skidded across the lawn and was massively damaged.

It is not the first time that there are doubts about the maintenance of government airlines by Lufthansa. So came the jet, whose anti-lock system failed in a US flight by Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, directly from the maintenance by Lufthansa. The incident ended well. However, it later turned out that Lufthansa had just replaced the faulty landing gear during maintenance.

After the breakdown flight, the A340 immediately went back to Hamburg to the technical department of Lufthansa and was extensively checked. Already during the return flight to the base of the flight readiness but there were again problems on the same chassis, again blocked the so-called anti-skid system, which is similar to the car to prevent the blocking of tires when putting on commercial aircraft.

Will the government be rebuilding the three new government aircraft of the A350?

Even more explosive was a lapse of Lufthansa Technik in a major overhaul of the A340 in 2010. At that time, a new communication system was installed in the largest government aircraft, but the readiness of the Bundeswehr to fly was not informed as intended about the change.

When the Chancellor broke down in November 2018 for the G20 summit in Argentina, this ensured that the pilots could not respond adequately to a power failure within the on-board electronics. Normally, they could have easily bypassed the short circuit. Without the important update of the on-board manual, however, the complete communication system failed and they had to return to Cologne, the Chancellor had to fly at the end line to Buenos Aires.

At that time Lufthansa Technik had withdrawn to the formalism that the information about the exchange of the system was not obligatory. A corresponding MIRROR message about the error in the maintenance then the company had commented with the general hint, one abide by the regulations in the aviation. The statement was then interpreted by many media as denial.

For Lufthansa Technik, the investigation of the Bundeswehr is more than unpleasant. The subsidiary of the German airline is regarded as a premium service provider for the lucrative expansion of aircraft to flying luxury temples. In addition to the flying readiness of the German Armed Forces, the company mainly serves rich customers from all over the world, who can convert aircraft into flying apartments with all extras.

In addition, the research should influence whether or not the Bundeswehr will rebuild the three new government aircraft of the type A350. Because of the age of the so-called White Fleet, the Federal Government had very spontaneously launched the order of the three new jets, the first should already be delivered in late 2020 and then equipped with a VIP cabin.

Initially, Lufthansa Technik had no opinion on the doubts about the correct maintenance of the government aircraft. The spokesman for the company left corresponding SPIEGEL requests on Friday unanswered.