The NTSB is investigating 2 more recent Airbus A330 incidents similar to that of the Air France A330 that crashed on June 1. And there will be a lot more as they go back in time to other incidents.
Looks like the Airbus A330 needs to be decertified until Airbus can demonstrate:
- that the flight computer system works reliably in various meteorological conditions, including icing and rain. Also, an independent, electrically-powered, non-software-based attitude indicator should be required if it isn’t already.
- that a reset of the flight computer system can be performed in a bounded amount of time both on the ground and in the air (like 2 minutes). Currently rebooting the computers takes around 5 minutes on the ground from what I’ve read, and that or longer in the air (if even possible – it was not in the Northwest flight.)
- that human pilots can actually regain control of the aircraft in an instantaneous and positive way without being locked out and asking, “What is the flight computer doing now?”
Why decertification? Because the paying and mostly uninformed passenger relies on the airlines to provide safe airliners, which the A330 is not if there’s anything but blue skies.
I have recommended to my friends not to fly the A330 until is fixed.
On the West Coast, Southwest Airlines only operates 737s, so that is a good choice.
Update 2009-09-10: Looks like the primary problem was the pitot tube model, which can be fixed with a different model (though the flight computer is still a potential issue): FAA orders Airbus airspeed sensors replaced
NTSB Chases New Leads in Air France Flight 447 Crash Probe
timesonline.com: Airbus could be asked to ground all long-range airliners
examiner.com: Air France Crash Blame Game Starts Early (and why was Hudson ditching not according to aircraft standards?)
msnbc.com: Airspeed systems failed on several U.S. A330 flights
avweb.com: NTSB To EASA: Fix Your Rudders
cnn.com: France to search again for downed jet (4th search)
Since the airbus crash in long island in 2001 i have stayed away from flying
the airbus. i am not an engineer or programmer but i can recognize a faultyproduct when i see one.
The Airbus, in my opinion, should never have been certified. It is not a very well-kept secret that one of the Airbus’s flown by Jetblue is called “Satan’s Kitten” by the pilots, because the computer has almost caused a fatal incident on at least three flights. The Airbus is not structurally safe. To lighten weight the major parts of the airframe have been diminished. The computer avoids stress by restricting angle of bank and movement of the controls. When the structures are stressed they tend to disintegrate as in the case of the Airbus that lost it’s tail when leaving Kennedy. Because the parts are assembled in many countries quality control is lacking. The wiring harnesses on different production runs have the same color in the harness leading to a different electrical connection. The computer system, without which the aircraft cannot fly, is not hardened. It can be completely shut down by an electromagnetic pulse from a terrorist device and it takes eight minutes for the computer to reboot, during which time the pilot has no control of the flight surfaces.
If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going.