Nippon Cargo Airlines announced on June 22, 2018, its fleet will remain grounded for at least another week due to longer than expected verification of the carrier’s maintenance records. The Japanese cargo airline grounded its freighters on June 17, 2018, after local authorities raised questions about the maintenance process.

The cargo airline claims the grounding is prolonged to provide time to verify all maintenance records, which is taking longer than expected. “Since we will not restart the network until we can conclude the record checking process, the first aircraft will resume operation in more than another week,” is noted in a statement by the airline. “The rest of the aircraft operation will resume in sequence as soon as the aircraft safety is confirmed.”

Earlier in 1018, Japanese transport ministry inspectors discovered inaccuracies in the maintenance records of the airline, mainly related to damages on aircraft. In response, Nippon Cargo Airlines grounded its fleet on June 17, 2018, claiming the move is due to an inappropriate maintenance record concerning the lubricating oil supply to the aircraft parts (for JA14 KZ) at Narita airport on April 3, 2018.

However, according to Nikkei, inspectors discovered the first inaccuracy in May 2018. It concerns two collisions between freighters and birds - in January 2017 and March 2018 - that were not reported, despite a need for heavy repairs.