Passengers stranded by French airline ban

The French Transport Ministry said yesterday that it was "looking for a solution" for 150 passengers who have been stranded at Charles de Gaulle airport since Saturday when safety officials banned the budget airline they were meant to be travelling with.

The French civil aviation authority said that, after a spot-check last month on a Lockheed aircraft belonging to Jordan Aviation and a follow-up inspection carried out by colleagues in Rome, it had banned the airline from taking passengers in Paris. The authority said that other European airports had been informed of French and Italian concerns.

It comes in the wake of a crash over the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh earlier this year in which 148 people died - most of them French - after a technical fault aboard a Boeing 737 chartered by the budget company Flash Airlines.

A spokesman for the French civil aviation authority, the DGAC, said a Jordan Aviation Lockheed 1011 had been sent empty back to the Jordanian capital, Amman, after "major security flaws" were found last Friday. It had been due to carry passengers to Abidjan in Ivory Coast, West Africa, on Saturday.

"We were concerned about the age and condition of the aircraft and there were worrying gaps in its technical paperwork," the DGAC spokesman said yesterday. "The aircraft was checked by us a month ago and then again by our colleagues in Italy, who made the same remarks," he said.

The passengers, most of them West African, have been staying at the Ibis Hotel at Charles de Gaulle at the expense of Aéroports de Paris while officials have been liaising with the airline's owner, Mohammad Khachaman, in Jordan. The French authorities' ruling against Jordan Aviation - which, according to Mr Khachaman, operates six aircraft - had resulted in the cancellation of 19 flights scheduled by the company between Paris and Abidjan since last Friday. Alternative airlines had been found for all but 150 passengers, said Aéroports de Paris.

In Amman, Mr Khachaman said that there was nothing wrong with his company's aircraft. "The problem is about documents wanted by the Italians. We faxed them last Friday but they arrived after the Italians had gone home. In the meantime, the French authorities took these drastic measures," said Mr Khachaman, who blamed a competitor he would not name for grounding the airline.

Mr Khachaman listed his aircraft as being Airbuses and one Boeing 737-300, rather than the Lockheed mentioned by the French. But he confirmed he was in contact with inspectors.