EASA to issue AD on A380 after new cracks found

Qantas’s first Airbus A380, christened the Nancy-Bird Walton (shown here), suffered an uncontained engine failure after taking off from Singapore Nov. 4, 2010. By Geoffrey Thomas

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will issue an Airworthiness Directive (AD) today on the Airbus A380 after new cracks were found in wing brackets this week.

Earlier this month, Airbus engineers carrying out repairs on the Qantas (QF) A380 that suffered an uncontained engine explosion in late 2010 after take-off from Singapore found a small number of cracks in the plane’s wing rib attachment brackets (ATW Daily News, Jan. 9).

However, new inspections on another undisclosed airline’s A380s have found cracks in another part of the same bracket that attaches the wing skin to the composite ribs.

According to sources in Europe, EASA will require all A380s (14) over 1,300 flight cycles to be checked within six weeks and those over 1,800 flight cycles (five) to be checked within a week.

The inspection takes two days.

Singapore Airlines, which was the first airline to take delivery of the A380, confirmed it had started checking its high time A380s ahead of the AD.

QF’s highest time A380 is at 1,250 flight cycles.

On Friday, Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Assn. Federal Secretary Stephen Purvinas reiterated his call for the immediate inspection of all A380s regardless of the AD.

However, in a statement to ATW, an Airbus spokesman said the problems are not flight critical.

"Airbus confirms that some additional cracks have been found on a limited number of non-critical brackets inside the wings of some A380s. Airbus emphasizes that these cracks do not affect the safe operation of the aircraft."

The problems appear to be in the manufacturer of earlier A380s and Airbus said the production fault is rectified.

The L-shaped brackets are called rib feet and are about 9 in. tall, and there are 30-40 on each rib spanning the wing.