Technical failures recorded on Turkish plane week prior to crash

The Boeing 737-800 "Tekirdag" underwent maintenance on Feb. 18 for a failure detected in its flaps, hurriyet.com.tr reported on Thursday.   Â

The plane recorded a second failure on Monday when its "Master Caution" lights burnt out, it added. The pilots of the Boeing 737-800 postponed the scheduled flight due to this problem. The failure was repaired later in the day.Â

The plane flew to Damascus from Turkey at 23.25 p.m. (21.25 GMT) on Wednesday and returned Istanbul 05.57 a.m. (03.57 GMT) on Thursday, hurriyet.com.tr said.

THY said in a written statement later on Thursday that the plane made eight successful flights after undergoing service on Monday. It has also made several flights after a malfunction was repaired in its flaps on Oct. 28, contradicting earlier reports about repairs conducted last week.Â

Wing flaps increase lift on take-off and create drag on landing.

The statement said such malfunctions happen sometimes, adding that Turkish Airlines implemented maintenance process in accordance with the directives of the manufacturer as well as national and international authorities.