Article from: Times Online
AIRBUS is expected to face calls to ground its worldwide fleet of long-range airliners tomorrow when French accident investigators issue their first account of what caused Air France Flight 447 to crash off Brazil on June 1.
It is believed that the accident bureau will report that faulty speed data and electronics were the main problem in the disaster, which killed 228 people.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is likely to be asked why it had never taken action to remedy trouble that was well known with the Airbus 330 and 340 series. Nearly 1,000 of the aircraft are flying and until last month, no passenger had been killed in one.
"EASA has a legal and moral obligation to get to the bottom of this problem now," said James Healy-Pratt of Stewarts Law in London. "If there is a defective system and the aircraft is unsafe then it should be grounded."
Stewarts Law, which specialises in aviation, is representing the families of 20 victims of the Air France disaster.
Only 11 bodies of the 50 recovered from the Atlantic have been identified. They include Captain Marc Dubois, 58, who is believed to have been resting when his two co-pilots lost control of the aircraft in a storm.
Suspicion over the air data systems on the Airbus 330 and 340 series has increased after the disclosure that the aircraft had experienced 36 episodes similar to the one that brought the aircraft down as it flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Airbus first reported problems with the speed sensors - known as pitot tubes - in 1994. The company advised remedies, but no mandatory action was taken.
Last weekend, the US National Transportation Safety Board began looking into two incidents in which Airbus A330s flying from the US suffered critical episodes apparently similar to that of the Air France flight.
The fate of the aircraft would probably have remained a mystery had it not automatically transmitted data back to the Air France base.
In the final four minutes, they told a story that was familiar to the airline. Ice particles or water had blocked the three pitot tubes. This upset the air data computers, which in turn caused the automatic pilot to disconnect. The pilots would have had to fly manually in near-impossible conditions.
Airbus fleet may be grounded | The Australian