Airbus issues precautionary telex to airlines
By: Keith Campbell 5th June 2009
source:-
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/following-air-france-tragedy-airbus-issues-precautionary-telex-to-airlines-2009-06-05
Following the tragic loss of Air France Airbus A330-200 F-GZCP, flight AF447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, early on Monday morning, the European airliner manufacturer has issued an Air Information Telex (AIT) to airlines. This AIT is a precuationary measure and reminds the airlines of the recommended procedures flight crew should follow when flying an aircraft in weather conditions which are likely to cause rapid changes in airspeed.
The procedures concerned apply to the operation of all jet-powered airliners, and not just Airbus aircraft. They are already in wide use by most airlines and are incorporated in both initial and refresher pilot training courses.
The conditions concerned typically include flying in the vicinity fo storm cells, in wind-shear, in clear-air turbulence, and flying across jetstreams. These phenomena can all subject an aircraft to volumes of air moving in opposite directions and conflcting with each other. This, in turn, can cause rapid changes in the airspeed of an aircraft.
Airbus reports that the automated measures transmitted by F-GZCP immediately before its loss showed an inconsistency in the different measurements of the aircraft's airspeed. The AIT reminds airlines of the recommended procedures to be followed in such a situation, in which the actual airspeed becomes unclear.
Airbus stresses that this AIT must not be seen as a confirmation of the causes of the loss of AF447. The company points out that the investigation into the loss of F-GZCP is still under way. The causes of this divergency in airspeed measurement by F-GZCP's systems are one of the matters being investigated.
It highlights that, as a manufacturer, it has an obligation, in the interests of safety, to remind its customers of certain procedures. The issuing of this AIT was done in agreement with France's Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses, which is the agency responsible for the investigation into the loss of flight AF447.
Largely unheralded, Airbus had some good news this week, with the maiden flight of the first A330-200 destined to be converted into a strategic air-to-air refuelling tanker for the UK Royal Air Force (RAF). The aircraft was assembled at Airbus' Toulouse plant but will undergo militarisation and tanker conversion at the Airbus Military plant at Getafe, near Madrid. This specialist RAF version of the aircraft is powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines, and 14 are on order in a £13-billion ($20,9-billion) deal.