Air Transport

Qantas is to temporarily ground six Boeing 737-400s while it checks maintenance paperwork relating to aircraft modifications carried out at one of its Australian facilities.

General manager of Qantas Engineering David Cox says it is a procedural issue and does not have any safety implications.

"Qantas discovered an irregularity with paperwork for these aircraft during an internal integrity check of maintenance records," he says.

"In line with our prudent response to any maintenance issue, however minor, we have elected to suspend the operation of the six aircraft while we ensure all our records are 100% accurate and we have advised the Civil Aviation Safety Authority."

He adds that Qantas regularly checks its records and detects a "record-keeping anomaly" about once a year.

The carrier says grounding the aircraft has resulted in the cancellation of three services.

It comes amid a review by the safety authority of standards at the airline, launched after three high-profile operational incidents in 10 days. But in launching the review CASA stressed it had no evidence to suggest safety standards at the airline had fallen.