Fed: Mobil to reimburse some costs over contaminated fuel

AAP General News (Australia)
12-27-1999
Fed: Mobil to reimburse some costs over contaminated fuel

MELBOURNE, Dec 27 AAP - Mobil today announced it would reimburse people who had to
remove and replace fuel or have their aircraft inspected for potentially contaminated
fuel.

Mobil said it would reimburse them for the cost of inspection of their aircraft's fuel
system in line with Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) airworthiness directive AD/General/77
- Suspect Fuel of December 23, 1999.

"We are setting up appropriate arrangements and we are in the process of advising our
customers directly on how they can progress claims for this reimbursement," Mobil spokesman
Alan Bailey said.

The problem related to the presence in aviation gasoline (avgas), produced at Melbourne's
Altona refinery, of small amounts of contaminant not detectable by normal industry standard
specification testing, he said.

"Our investigation has determined the likely presence of contaminant in batches of
avgas sold from November 24, 1999," Mr Bailey said.

"With the help of an international team of aviation fuel experts we now have a new
test procedure which can detect such small amounts of contaminant," he said in a statement.

Mobil apologised for the inconvenience to customers, but said their safety was paramount.

Meanwhile, all avgas produced by the Altona refinery remains quarantined and any avgas
which fails to pass this new test will be recalled, he added.

CASA issued an urgent warning at the weekend to all piston-engined light aircraft operators
to use extreme care when removing potentially contaminated fuel from their aircraft.

Aircraft must be checked by a maintenance engineer for the fuel, which had the potential
to corrode engine parts and had already caused one aborted take-off, CASA spokesman Peter
Gibson said.

The move has caused major disruption to Christmas holiday plans for many light aircraft
users, who have also threatened major legal action.

In a new warning on Saturday, Mr Gibson said aircraft operators removing the fuel had
to follow safety procedures because aircraft fuel was highly flammable.

"There is a high explosive risk during defuelling of aircraft," he said.

AAP st/pjs

KEYWORD: AVIATION (CARRIED EARLIER)

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