Legal Commentary

Is there a problem with the Airbus 330?

By Tom Kirkendall

When I travel to Europe, I normally fly on Air France, which is one of my favorite airlines. Professional, orderly, reasonably comfortable and clean. It's amazing how few airlines combine those characteristics these days. 

Air France's fleet includes a large number of Airbus 330 aircraft, which is the aircraft that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean last month on Air France's Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. So, given my preference for Air France, I've been following the development of information on that crash with particular interest.

James Fallows, who is a long-time aviator, follows most aircraft crashes closely, and he has provided much-needed information and insight in his posts on Flight 447 here, here, here and here. Initial speculation on the cause of the crash revolved around multiple system failures occurring during an unusually violent storm.

But now, questions are beginning to emerge as to whether there is a fundamental problem with the design of the Airbus 330. This lengthy David Rose/Mail Online article surveys the evidence that suggests a problem. Here is a list of the recent troubled flights of the Airbus 330 model:

August 2008 - Air Caraibes Atlantique - Paris to Martinique: Plane flying through turbulence experiences failure of autopilot, ADIRU and computerized instruments. Pilots successfully fight to restore control.

September 2008 - Air Caraibes Atlantique - Paris to Martinique: Second Air Caraibes flight to Martinique has identical experience. Plane is same model, different aircraft.

October 7, 2008 - Qantas Flight 72 - Singapore to Perth: Makes emergency landing after twice plunging uncontrollably in flight following failure of ADIRU, autopilot and instruments. 64 injured, 14 seriously.

December 28, 2008 - Qantas Flight 71 - Perth to Singapore: Forced to return to base after failure of autopilot and ADIRU.  Different aircraft, same model as in previous incident.

May 21, 2009 - TAM Flight 8901 - Miami to Sao Paulo: Experiences failure of autopilot, ADIRU and instruments. Crew regain control after five minutes. No injuries. US investigation under way.

June 1, 2009 - Air France Flight 447 - Rio to Paris: Crashes during Atlantic storm, killing 228. Automatic radio messages indicate that in minutes before crash, crew lost autopilot, ADIRU and computerized instruments.

June 23, 2009 - Northwest Airlines - Hong Kong to Tokyo: Flight loses autopilot, ADIRU and instruments before landing safely.  US investigation under way.

Rose goes on to report:

Interviews with pilots, lawyers and crash investigators suggest there may be an underlying problem with A330s. It’s impossible to conclude what this is, but there are two prime suspects – either flaws in the software, or with the wiring found inside huge numbers of modern aircraft.

‘It looks to me like there’s only one reason why AF447 crashed and QF72 survived,’ says Charles-Henri Tardivat, a former crash investigator who’s now part of a team from the London law firm Stewarts Law, which represents the victims’ families. ‘On QF72, the same things started happening that preceded the Air France crash. They were able to recover control because they were flying in daylight and perfect weather. They could see what was happening, even without their instruments. But AF447 was caught in a violent storm at night. The A330 is a very well-built aircraft, but there obviously is a problem somewhere. With so many of them out there, we need to find it.’

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on July 21, 2009 (boomark / email).