A United States company has filed a lawsuit against Air Kiribati accusing it of fraud and misrepresentation.
The news comes days after Air Kiribati itself said it was taking the company, CAAMS Llc, to court for failing to deliver a second Twin Otter aircraft that Air Kiribati claimed had been paid for in full.
But the CAAMS managing director, Everette Mash, says the issue involves a previous transaction in which Air Kiribati traded in its CASA aircraft for its first Twin Otter which CAAMS delivered to the airline.
Mr Mash says CAAMS engineers found the traded aircraft was in very poor condition and Air Kiribati had lied to his company.
"They noticed there was extensive corrosion in the air plane and the FAA engineers told them to take the tail off the airplane, which they did, and there was all kinds of corrosion in the horizontal stabiliser area. So the aeroplane should not have been flying."
