28 October 2015
The faulty fuel pipeline, which caused fuel to leak on two of the aircraft parking bays at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) last Monday, is expected to be fully rectified in two weeks.
The Rakyat Post understands that the leaky pipe will be removed from the ground and sent to a lab for testing to find the real cause of the issue while a new pipe will be inserted to replace it.
The rectifying works are being done by Kuala Lumpur Aviation Fuelling System Sdn Bhd (KASF) and airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB).
KASF is responsible for management, operations and maintenance of the pipelines. It is a subsidiary of Petronas Dagangan Bhd, which holds 65% stake in the company.
Malaysia Airports (Properties) Sdn Bhd holds 20% and the balance was held by Malaysia Airlines System Bhd.
Sources suspect that the fuel leak could be due to a crack on the welded pipe joint.
“Perhaps there were a surface crack on the joint and after some time, due to air pressure, the crack started to open and that’s when the fuel leaked,” they said.
They brushed off rumours that the incident was due to soil settlement.
“It is definitely not because of the soil settlement because the pipe sits on a pile-to-set foundation.
“Even when there’s movement of soft soil (as soil settlement occurs), it moves downwards due to pressure and that won’t cause the foundation to move,” sources said.
The parking bays that were affected by the fuel leakage were Q10 and Q12. No aircraft were parked at the apron when the leakage was discovered.
MAHB has also clarified in a statement that the leak from the fuel pipeline was not caused by soil depression. It said that KAFS is currently carrying out inspection to identify the root cause of the leak.
The airport operator added that operations at klia2 were not affected by the incident as there are sufficient bays to cater for wide-body aircraft daily operations.
There are nine other contact bays and six remote bays available to serve wide-body aircraft such as the Airbus A330.
“MAHB will be engaging closely with the airlines to brief them and provide reassurance that the flight operations are not affected,” it said on Monday.
Original Source: therakyatpost.com
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