As airline companies gradually resume flight operation after months of suspended service, aviation experts are warning of the potential dangers posed by aircraft that have been stored in hangars for extended periods of time.
According to a report in Reuters, around two-thirds of the world’s aircraft fleet has been grounded for months, and professionals are now urging airline companies to conduct comprehensive safety checks before allowing these airplanes to take off. Their concerns are being echoed by insurance companies, which note previous cases of aircraft coming out of storage with serious safety issues including poor maintenance, nests of insects interfering with circuitry and sensors, and also pilots who are out of practice due to not having flown in months.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has reported an "alarming trend" in the number of reports of unreliable air speed or altitude readings on aircraft instruments during the first flight after an extended period in storage. In many cases the problem was due to nests of insects inside within the circuitry, blocking critical sensors that feed data to the aircraft’s computer systems.
The EASA also cited other problems discovered in aircraft stored in hangars for long weeks or months, including contaminants in the fuel system, depleted batteries, a drop in brake pressure and even engines stalling mid-flight, forcing many planes to make emergency landings.