By Cameron Rasmusson
Reader Staff
Local company Tamarack Aerospace has declared bankruptcy in the wake of setbacks from aviation regulators.
Company officials say declaring Chapter 11 will give them time to address safety concerns raised by the Federal Aviation Administration and European Aviation Safety Agency over its active winglet system, ATLAS. Designed to improve aircraft efficiency and reduce fuel usage, the winglet system was the target of an FAA and EASA grounding order after a plane equipped with the technology crashed.
“(Declaring Chapter 11) allows Tamarack to continue to operate and focus all activities on supporting the ATLAS winglet customers and to support EASA and FAA as they consider the proposal for lifting the restrictions imposed,” company officials said in a statement.
According to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Chapter 11 isn’t the end for Tamarack Aerospace. Rather, company officials intend for the process to be temporary, giving them time to restore the business to fiscal health. In the meantime, Tamarack staff are working on upgrading all planes equipped with ATLAS technology to the latest version of the system, which they say should address any safety concerns.
“Our goal is to complete the retrofit of the fleet with both upgrades as soon as possible, in anticipation that EASA and FAA will concurrently agree that these upgrades are considered the Terminating Action for these (airworthiness directives),” the announcement said.
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