Cathay Pacific has doubled the frequency of checks on the landing gear of its Airbus A340-300s because of a fault that could have implications for fleets worldwide.
It follows an incident in New Zealand on January 20 when the tail of one of its jets carrying 145 passengers hit the runway of Auckland airport as it took off for Hong Kong.
The airline has also asked Airbus to issue new guidelines to engineers and consider fitting electronic tail-strike indicators to long-range aircraft.
Tail strikes can be catastrophic. The tail of the plane is close to the rear pressure bulkhead which, if ruptured, could lead to loss of pressure in the passenger cabin.
An investigation by Cathay's Corporate Safety Department has cleared the pilot of any blame for the incident. The tail strike happened because the main landing gear oleo - the gas-filled shock-absorber suspension system above the wheels - was 'significantly underinflated', investigators concluded.
As a result, the plane was too low off the ground when its nose angled upward, causing the tail to hit the runway, according to the internal company report seen by the Sunday Morning Post.
Before takeoff, the flight's first officer noticed the plane appeared to be sitting low off the ground and asked a ground staff engineer to check it. The engineer concluded, however, that by Airbus guidelines there was nothing wrong.