Originally Posted by
vapilot2004
Airbus is not commenting on this officially.
Precautionary A380 turnback delays Tunisia testing
ATI: 290806
Airbus has postponed additional hot-weather tests on one of its A380 aircraft after an undercarriage sensor indication prompted the crew to abandon a flight to Tunisia.
The aircraft, serial number MSN004, returned to Toulouse today around 25min after departure.
It had been heading for the city of Tozeur to perform hot-weather testing. But shortly after take-off the crew received a sensor indication which prevented the main landing gear from retracting.
“Sensors detected a mismatch of information on the [landing gear] doors,” a, spokeswoman from Airbus says, adding that the data meant that the system could not determine whether the doors were open or closed.
“There was no problem with the landing gear itself,” she adds. The indication automatically led the A380’s systems to block retraction of the landing gear and the crew opted to return to Toulouse, where the aircraft landed without incident.
Aircraft MSN004 was the jet which carried out ‘hot and high’ altitude performance testing in Colombia at the beginning of the year. More tests had been due to take place in Tozeur but the spokeswoman says: “These additional tests will be delayed to another day.”
It's now official...
Cheers, y'all.