Ridiculous to find cracks this soon in operation, sounds like they were found during routine phase maintenance and will likely be found in the same general area on all A380 manufactured to date.

The way a wing used to be built was to stress, inspect, beef up and repeat.

Like I mentioned before Airbus had engineered this aircraft to the tightest weight restricting tolerances they could, the largest indication of this was their failure to meet the initial wing load testing. I can not find word one on the INTERNET about their solution and the successful test that deemed the wing capable. It was big news one day.. And then the big delay due to cabin entertainment wiring pushed the aircraft delevery schedule MONTHS! This was all you could read about day after day!!!!

I am sure there is no serious risk but this will mean beefing up those ribs, this will probably result in creating another stress point, beef it up and so on until the aircraft weighs more than they would have been happy selling it for in the first place.

Who knows I could be wrong, time will tell. You can be damn sure Airbus and their customers will keep it as quiet as possible though.

@Topspot:
 

:ok:
and if it is not in the SRM, the Airbus design office needs to be contacted before any further flight,
conservative is very progressive compared to the Airbus design office, they don't take any risk.

So no worries about the Airbus statement!!

However since it is the media now, they need to publish detailed information and solution(s) to re-establish the trust to the public.

Re Wing flexing......I remember an episode of wings once that included the Galaxy 5A......you should see THAT one. If I remember right, there is a system to 'dampen' the flexing....when they turned it off, it looked like the d@mn thing was flapping it's wings like a bird. Perhaps Galaxy flyer could confirm this....? Actually, the only thing that bothers me about this problem is that the aircraft are basically brand new, and this is showing up already. I understand with a new design that there are always 'teething pains'.....but this situation is rather surprising. It will be interesting to see what comes next.....

Lufthansa half 380 fleet in hangar
 

Was it the reason to have 4 out of 8 Lufthansa's 380s in the hangar (2 inside 2 nearby) in EDDF on Dec 28th when we were landing from LHR ?:eek:

grounded27

This one part of your response may not be correct.

I believe the cracks were found on the wing that suffered the uncontained engine failure during the extraordinary repair work.

Lack of flights between Christmas and New Year's Eve.

Could you imagine the news, and passenger reactions, if the headline said "Cracks causing fuel leaks" and pilots/engineers started posting "that's unsafe and I wouldn't fly it"?

Well, that exact situation(cracks causing fuel leaks) occurred. Fuel leak was a known issue and tracked.

The whole 'what, where, when, why' for any crack needs to be understood.

To the best of my knowledge, the wings are built in England
(southwest of MCT, just passed the border with Wales)

Absolutely :ok:

and it is by the professionals, else the regulator wouldn't let it fly

Clearly to some PPRuNers cracks found on the ground early on in an aircraft's career are big bad news.

To engineers they are a beautiful confirmation of the fail-safe aspects of the design.

Airbus indeed must have their hands full. Better to catch something like this sooner than later. Did fuel leaks or a battered wing due to the engine failure or both drive someone into those tanks?

Wing craks in A380.....
 

Sorry, Serafim, whilst I realise that English is probably not your primary language, your post makes absolutely no sense.

Safety
 

Hope you did not mis-read my post. From what I get the aircraft that were found with cracks in the ribs were not due to routine maintenance. I would like to confirm that the initial investigation into the wings were as a result of fuel leaks and possibly the un contained engine failure probably causing damage to the lower wing skin. If this is true, un-scheduled maintenance found this serious problem that will likely be found on most A380's in service if they decide to look.

In light of the daily fail putting up ANOTHER article about this, someone has now commendted on it:

"Cracks in any metallic frame are a sign of failure..... IT IS NOT METALLIC... It is composite Fibre.... It is also in an area of brackets that are there for production purposes... If it was possible to take these out after the wing is finished they would have done... They have no Structural Component to the finished plane.... It has been stated over and over again... Airbus say its safe, the bodies that regulate aircraft say its safe. The conspiracy theorists are have a field day over this"

Is this true about the location and importance or are they talking rubbish?

MORE cracks!
 

BBC News - A380 wings to be checked for cracks, EASA says

Anyone seen this article on today's BBC?

"Following an unscheduled internal inspection of an A380 wing"

Well, I guess that's one way to describe aftermath of QF32 :D

Source of mine tells me they suspect faulty heat treatment of the material in certain batch numbers during manufacture may be the problem, whatever the case im sure it will be sorted quickly

As the Aviation Herald says, the AD issued today reads exactly like an Emergency AD -- though EASA isn't calling it that.

News: Airworthiness Directive regarding Airbus A380 wing cracks

If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...

:rolleyes: