Updated
It is the second time in a month that Tiger is being investigated for flying too low. (ABC News: Timothy Marshall)
All Tiger Airways flights in Australia have been grounded for the next five days after the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) cited serious safety concerns over the airlines' operations.
CASA moved to suspend Tiger's services after an incident on Thursday night when a Tiger Airways Airbus A320 flew into Avalon airport, south-west of Melbourne, below the lowest safe altitude.
It is the second time in a month that Tiger has flown below the safety standard.
CASA says it is the first time it has grounded an airline.
A spokesman for CASA, Peter Gibson, says concerns with the airline were raised as early as March this year when Tiger was issued with a show cause notice over pilot training and maintenance procedures.
"The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has issued Tiger with notice about a number of serious safety concerns about pilot training, about pilot standards, about maintenance standards," he said.
"We've been working with the airline to deal with those issues, but we're not satisfied that they've satisfactorily done that.
"Tiger has not been able to, at this stage, convince us that they can continue operations safely, so that's why they're on the ground."
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau also says it is also looking into why the Tiger flight flew below the minimum safe altitude.
On the evening of June 7, air traffic control reported another Tiger Airways A320 cleared to descend to 2,500 feet (762 metres) near Melbourne Airport, but it continued to a reported 2,000 feet.
The lowest safe altitude for that leg of the approach was 2,500 feet, the bureau said.
- ABC/AAP
First posted
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/07/02/3259293.htm
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