Airbus Updates No.664

Airbus Sees Years Of Dealing With A380 Cracks

March 18, 2012

 

Airbus will need years to get past problems with wing cracks on its flagship A380 passenger jet, an executive vice president at Airbus told a German magazine.
"This problem will keep us busy for years," weekly Der Spiegel quoted Tom Williams as saying in an article published on Sunday.
European air safety regulators last month ordered checks for A380 wing cracks for the entire superjumbo fleet after safety engineers found cracks in almost all planes inspected.
Airbus has said a combination of design and manufacturing slips put too much stress on a handful of the 2,000 brackets that fix the exterior of each wing to the ribcage beneath.
The magazine said Williams aimed to present a solution for the problem in April, and Airbus will start installing new parts in planes by the end of the year.