Factory wants to ground Real Tonga Airways' MA-60

China's AVIC Xi'an Aircraft Industry (Group) has applied to ground its MA-60 planes after two instances of landing gear failure this month...

see http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1393510259.html

That's really interesting. NZ has, for some time, been warning travellers to Tonga about this aircraft and the Tonga government has been complaining that NZ is adversely affecting its tourism.

It seems NZ was right. This link shows the warning on the NZ government Safe travel site.

https://safetravel.govt.nz/tonga

UPDATE... The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has grounded 15 MA60s after recent safety incidents involving the landing gear.

I wonder what Real Tonga is going to do with their gift from the Chinese? Do they ground it?

http://atwonline.com/safety/caac-grounds-15-ma60s-landing-gear-inspections

was just in Tonga and watched the MA60 take off on March 3. I think it was still fliying when I left a few days ago as well.

everyone complains about the MA60, but I'm not sure the Harbin Y12 theyre leasing from Air Vanuatu is any better? Though it got me from place to place

Edited by: pzleric

I flew on it twice in September. It lands like a brick. That was with the Chinese factory pilot in the left seat!

I watched it land a couple of times too. It just seems to fall out of the air after the flare. That may one of the reasons they have so many undercarriage problems.