.....the chances of which are infinitely small! What about aliens......:hmm:

While not supporting any particular failure in this incident,with Airbus you can never discount the impossible. Years ago, we were told that it was impossible to lose all 6 screens, but one of ours did over the Bay of Biscay. All ended happily, eventually Airbus came up with a 'why' this happened when it was thought impossible.

Taxied past the aircraft yesterday, still sitting on the ramp where it was parked right after the accident, with engines covered and gear doors (at least what remains) hanging. Does not look like it is going anywhere anytime soon.. W/O?

There is one bloke that does accident investigation in Estonia with I think another two helping neither of which have any high level engineering qualifications. There is no real skill set in country for the systems analysis. Normally there is not a lot of on going incidents to work on hence everything is probably getting farmed out. Its not like the UK where there are several investigators full time with multiple full time resources to call on.

The bloke is probably still getting his head round how an airbus works.

What's happened to the airframe?

It has actually been towed between stands and there is activity around the plane fairly often with doors open, people moving in and around. It is still in poor state though, with the soot still on the engines from the apparent fire(s).

Wonder if the trainees have been cleared for duty again already, Smartlynx was doing a bunch of base training yesterday or the day before.

Taxied past it again yesterday, same position, exactly the same state as five weeks ago.
Saw another white tail 320 reg XY-AGO at a gate, apparently leased in from Myanmar Airways to fill the capacity gap for the summer charters.

The aircraft is still parked where it was four months ago with hanging gear doors, but now sans engines. Given the long inactvity it could be a w/o.

Latest FCTM revision comes with a new paragraph. In case of an in-flight failure during circuit training, the next take-off should be (after a full stop, presumably) considered a new dispatch with release as per MEL if required. Any leads this is connected?

Really? If I go around, must I apply the MEL before I land again? If I get a no-go item such as an aircraft that will no longer compress due to a tail strike, what am I supposed to do? The MEL can be used for information, but not procedures to be followed as they're designed for use on the ground. Some procedures might ask you to pop cbs, those procedures are not approved for use in flight.

GG you are reading it all wrong. Me guilty as charged, things lost in translation of my post as well.

Your example is good, just do not put GA into the explanation. Should you have a tailstrike during circuit touch and go training, surely you just come back. And that is when the new wording from Airbus comes to rule. After that touchdown we are told to stop and apply new maintenance dispatch release, including MEL relief and restriction if possible or required. Kind of a no brainer huh, nobody would continue the circuits with a scratched tail.

Well, for some gremlins it might not be as clear cut and immediately obvious. BRK SYS 2 fault? Hot Air fault?

Now, most likely as a result of a human factors cluster flop, a new sentence is introduced to clarify that a fault during circuits ends the exercise with the next touchdown, and once stopped the ground phase MEL restrictions would apply.

It seems related to this accident, hence I revivied the topic.

The FCTM revision came out from Airbus in Dec 18 (and obviously took time to filter down to line pilot level). I've been told there's a link.

Simon H has written up the accident report.What a horrible situation the crew found themselves in.
Accident: Smartlynx A320 at Tallinn on Feb 28th 2018, runway excursion after bad touch and go due to elevator control completely lost

Jeez, that was a real Halloween read just before bed. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate saves the day.

Crikey! My head really hurts after reading that...

Tut tut!