Related News
Australia's Qantas grounds an Airbus A380 due to cracks
Source: Agencies |
February 8, 2012, Wednesday
|
Online Edition
Online Edition
AUSTRALIA'S Qantas Airways said today it had grounded one its flagship Airbus A380 aircraft for up to a week after engineers found dozens of cracks in its wings during detailed inspections following a flight hit by turbulence.
The discovery of more instances of cracks on the wings of A380s has been expected after Airbus said last month it had found the problem and predicted a consistent pattern would emerge until it had time to conduct repairs.
However, the 36 small cracks were found during routine checks on the A380 at Sydney's main airport after a flight in which it experienced severe turbulence.
The cracks, each no longer than 2 centimeters, appear to be different to earlier kinds found in A380 wings, the Australian flag carrier said in a statement.
"This cracking is not related to the turbulence, or specific to Qantas, but is traced back to a manufacturing issue," the Qantas statement said, adding that Airbus had confirmed the cracks had no effect on flight safety.
It said the cracks were not as serious as those discovered by Airbus in Europe last month.
"This type of cracking is different from the 'type two' cracking found on certain A380s in the global fleet, which is now the subject of a European airworthiness directive," it said.
The discovery of more instances of cracks on the wings of A380s has been expected after Airbus said last month it had found the problem and predicted a consistent pattern would emerge until it had time to conduct repairs.
However, the 36 small cracks were found during routine checks on the A380 at Sydney's main airport after a flight in which it experienced severe turbulence.
The cracks, each no longer than 2 centimeters, appear to be different to earlier kinds found in A380 wings, the Australian flag carrier said in a statement.
"This cracking is not related to the turbulence, or specific to Qantas, but is traced back to a manufacturing issue," the Qantas statement said, adding that Airbus had confirmed the cracks had no effect on flight safety.
It said the cracks were not as serious as those discovered by Airbus in Europe last month.
"This type of cracking is different from the 'type two' cracking found on certain A380s in the global fleet, which is now the subject of a European airworthiness directive," it said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
