Airline Chiefs Dismiss Safety Fears Over A330 Jets

EILEEN NG

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Several airline chiefs dismissed safety fears over the Airbus A330 on Tuesday, saying they were confident of the plane's reliability despite last week's Air France jet crash.

Emirates airlines President Tim Clark said the Dubai-based company has a fleet of 29 A330-200 planes that have been flying since 1998.

"It is a very robust airplane. It has been flying for many years, clocking hundreds of millions of hours and there is absolutely no reason why there should be any question over this plane. It is one of the best flying today," he said on the sidelines of a two-day global aviation conference here.

Gulf Air Chief Executive Bjorn Naf said he was "not concerned at all" over the safety of the carrier's fleet of 10 A330-200 planes but would wait for directive from Airbus. Manama, Bahrain-based Gulf has no plans to cancel the 20 A330-300 planes and 15 A320 jets it ordered last year, he said.

Investigators are uncertain what caused Air France Flight 447 to crash in the Atlantic Ocean while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, killing 228 people on board. It was the worst aviation accident since 2001.