Last month, engineers found small cracks in the wings of Singapore Airlines’ A380s. Now, Qantas has been forced to ground one its A380s because of the same problem.
The aircraft has been grounded since 5 February, and isn’t set to fly again for at least another week, reports Bloomberg. The plane has flown between 20 and 30 times since the cracks were first discovered in January, but was grounded when more were found.
Airbus apparently said last month that the plane was safe to fly, as they did when the same problem occured with Singapore Airlines’ planes, but they’ve finally changed their mind. It sounds like those wings could do with some attention. [Bloomberg; Image: MiqsPix]
G__A
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 3:06 PMbetter safe than sorry I guess..
Franz
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 6:00 PMIt’s a scientific miracle that Qantas haven’t killed a whole bunch of people yet.
Calvin Lichty
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12:19 PMGrounding planes with stress cracks is a good idea but to learn it’s only after 20-30 flights ‘after’ the cracks were first spotted?!?
Yes, I get that these planes were a huge investment and to have them grounded will cost the airlines; but, has public safety really been thrown out the window in pursuit of the mighty dollar?
Stevo Di Devo
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 8:23 PMGuess someone is kicking themselves for not buying B777′s ten years ago