Airbus aborts test flight of superjumbo
Reuters
London: Airbus aborted a test flight of the A380 superjumbo from France to Tunisia yesterday after a sensor indicated a possible problem with the doors enclosing the main landing gear, the planemaker said.
"The sensor sensed a mismatch in the position of the main landing gear doors," a spokeswoman said. "It happened shortly after take-off."
The plane flew back to Toulouse and landed without incident, she said.
A spokeswoman for landing gear supplier Goodrich said the incident did not involve the landing gear itself. Airbus has five of the $300-million planes in flight testing. They have made more than 580 flights and logged over 1,800 hours in the air.
Parent company EADS revealed in June that complications in wiring the mammoth planes were expected to delay deliveries scheduled for the next three years.
The news shook EADS shares and triggered a management shake-up. The first A380 is still scheduled for delivery to Singapore Airlines late this year.
This is all the AP got:
PARIS - An Airbus A380 superjumbo test flight heading from France to the North African desert was cut short today as a precaution, the plane manufacturer said.
The jet was scheduled to fly to the airport of Tozeur-Nefta in southern Tunisia, but the pilot returned to the plane's base in Toulouse, France, soon after takeoff because of a "minor incident," said Airbus spokeswoman Anne Galabert. She declined to elaborate.
Galabert said the shortened flight was a "non-event" that received attention only because journalists waiting in Tunisia were disappointed when they learned they would not see the world's largest passenger plane.
The decision to turn back was "something that is completely normal in the testing phase," she said, adding that the flight will be rescheduled for a later date.
Five A380s have clocked more than 1,800 hours of test flights, she said.
The A380 program has been under close scrutiny since delays in the long-awaited superjumbo sent stock in parent company European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. tumbling more than 25 percent in June. They also led to a major management reshuffle at the Franco-German company, and customer and investor confidence was rattled.
Goodrich covering their erm, gear, I see.
Airbus is not commenting on this officially.
