COPENHAGEN - Danish aviation officials said on Tuesday that Turkish Onur Air flights would continue as scheduled in the Scandinavian country, despite bans against the airline in a number of other European countries.
Danish authorities have "not observed any abnormalities" on Onur aircraft, and "therefore see no reason to ban their operations", Civil Aviation Administration spokesman Thorbjoern Ancker told AFP, pointing out that an Onur aircraft had been subject to a surprise inspection on Saturday.
"The airplane was new and the crew was competent," he insisted, adding that the agency on average carried out one surprise inspection each week on aircraft flying from Danish airports.
The Netherlands suspended Onur Air flights last Thursday, prompting France, Germany, and Switzerland to do the same, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded.
Belgium has also stepped up inspections on the Turkish company`s planes.
Onur Air said meanwhile in The Hague on Monday that it was planning to sue Dutch aviation authorities on the grounds that no satisfactory explanation had been offered for the ban.
Dutch aviation inspection chief Helma Nepperus said on Tuesday that the case was an "emergency situation" because in recent weeks Dutch regulators had come upon "incident after incident" involving Onur Air.
05/17/2005 12:39 GMT