ASA Aircraft Damaged in Mx Mishap

It is unclear how much a mishap which involved three aircraft at Atlantic Southeast’s maintenance base at Baton Rouge may cost the airline in what the carrier calls an extremely rare incident that has never occurred before at any ASA location.
On the morning of July 7 three aircraft were scheduled for maintenance at the Baton Rouge hangar facility. Reportedly, a mechanic, working on an aircraft scheduled for compressor blade cleaning pressed the starter switch to spin the aircraft around. The action put the engine into immediate takeoff power hurling the aircraft at 90-degree angles. According to local press reports, the entire incident took five seconds and witnesses were surprised the entire hangar didn’t erupt in flames, nor produce any injuries to the 14 mechanics and cleaning crews present.
ASA’s internal investigation team conducted a thorough investigation in the days and weeks following the incident and resulted in adjustments to processes during specific routine maintenance to ensure the safety of employees and aircraft. The airline pointed out that it has an excellent safety record having been the first American carrier to earn OSHA’s VPP certification at the “Star” level for safety at one of its maintenance hangar facilities in 2005.
“Any incident that involves our people, our planes or our passengers is taken extremely seriously and corrective steps are in place to ensure such an incident does not occur again,” said the airline.