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    Qantas grounds A380 after finding cracks in wings

    SYDNEY (AP) — Australia's Qantas Airways said Wednesday it was temporarily grounding one of its A380 superjumbos after discovering dozens of hairline cracks in its wings during a maintenance inspection.

    The Australian flagship carrier said the 36 small fissures posed no threat to safety, and that the cracks were different from the cracks that manufacturer Airbus found in metal brackets inside the wings of two jets last month. That discovery prompted Europe's air safety authority to order the inspection of nearly a third of the world's A380s.

    Qantas workers found the cracks, measuring less than 0.8 inches (2 centimeters) long, in the "wing rib feet" — the metal brackets that connect the wing's ribs to its skin — after the aircraft hit severe turbulence on a flight from London to Singapore last month. The cracks were not related to the turbulence and were linked to an Airbus manufacturing issue, the airline said in a statement.

    Qantas conducted routine checks after the turbulence incident, then conducted "additional precautionary inspections" on the wings at Airbus' request, the airline said. The cracking was discovered in the precautionary inspections, Qantas said.

    Qantas is working to repair the cracks and said it expects the plane to be back in the air within a week.

    Qantas spokesman Tom Woodward said the cracks are the same type the airline recently found in the wing ribs of an A380 that is being repaired in Singapore following the disintegration of an engine in midflight in 2010. The 2010 engine failure was the most significant safety issue an A380 has faced since it began passenger flights in 2007, and prompted airlines to temporarily ground 20 of the planes.

    When asked whether the recent discovery would prompt Qantas inspections of all 12 of its A380s, Woodward suggested they would not.

    "The current European regulatory directive requires airlines to inspect A380s once they exceed 1,300 flight cycles," Woodward said in an email. "Currently, no Qantas A380 has completed more than 1,300 flight cycles."

     
    • Ricardo  •  3 mths ago
      Here is a matter of fact about Boeing and Airbus aircraft that many of you don't know. Boeing aircraft are in fact built stronger to withstand greater stress and G forces while Airbus gets away with building their aircraft lighter and with less structural strength because the airbus' fly by wire system software is designed to prevent their aircraft from exceeding critical g forces. While a wing test that is very familiar with people (The 777 video) demonstrated that the 777 wing withstood beyond what was required........initial A380 wing tests failed. Google A380 static wing test fail and read it for yourself. McDonald Douglas and Boeing in my opinion have always built more solid aircraft. The failure of that A380 wing test early on in my opinion is proof that Airbus was trying to get that plane certified with as little structural integrity as they could get away with.
      • Realist 3 mths ago
        Its all fact, and, to be more direct, Douglas planes were built stronger than Boeing planes for the same reason Boeing bought Douglas out (not "merged with" contrary to media insistence) for the price of a fleet of 747's. Airframes built by Douglas were built focusing on longevity beyond anyone else's many times using practices from decades before. This costs more and had to effect the price of the product.
      • alvin 3 mths ago
        yeah i would like to buy a big mac from McDonald Douglas
      • william 3 mths ago
        airbus are in it for the money boeing because there the best
    • David  •  3 mths ago
      Are the wings important?
      • CosmicJoker 3 mths ago
        Only if you don't want to be a missile!
      • J.G.S. 3 mths ago
        ask a bird.
      • Ron Sr. , moparmtn 3 mths ago
        Not on the ground ..... but they are good for pushing other planes out of the way...
    • Michael  •  South Shore, Kentucky  •  3 mths ago
      Hey look at it this way, if it lost its wings mid-flight, it would still get you all the way to the scene of the crash!
      • Ward Cleaver 3 mths ago
        lol
      • Tooth Ferry 3 mths ago
        YES, just like Flight 93 with it's right wing blown off at the Engine ,landing gear,area, they fell to earth 7 miles from the crash sight!!!!!!!! Saw it on the news, then they wiped it out!
      • Steve 3 mths ago
        And you'll beat the paramedics there by 30 minutes!
    • ChAoS~dEfInEd  •  Bangkok, Thailand  •  3 mths ago
      airbus sucks
    • G. Robert  •  Fayetteville, North Carolina  •  3 mths ago
      The Australian flagship carrier said the 36 small fissures posed no threat to safety...I'm an A&P mechanic and I assure you, when we find cracks in a structual part of an aircraft..its a threat to safety...
    • Bow  •  3 mths ago
      AL2 FAST - I've worked on aircraft for 30years and wing cracks 'even small ones' are very rare and on a new plane it can be an indication that the aircraft is being stressed too much by the pilots or that the materials thickness is inadequate.
      • frankie 3 mths ago
        Sounds like there's a possibility of some pre-loading between the flange and the skins. For the non rivet-benders out there, that means that gaps might exist between the skin and the structure, and when the skin is fastened to the brackets the loading bends the flange and that can cause cracking. If the pre-load cannot be addressed by re-positioning the structure/brackets, then shimming the gaps is an alternate (common) fix. I don't know if that is the case on the 380's, but I've seen it on other airframes.
    • Kathleen  •  Corpus Christi, Texas  •  3 mths ago
      Crack kills !
    • Mike  •  3 mths ago
      Just a matter of time before one goes down with 500 on board. Glad I don't own any Airbus stock.
    • EVAN  •  Irvine, California  •  3 mths ago
      It may be able to fly with only two engines working. But if one wing falls off, it will fly ok, directly into the ground !
      • Michael Forrest 3 mths ago
        The 380 is their premier aircraft and only in service since 2007!

        Cracks usually only happen after 10 or more years of stress!
      • Wayne 3 mths ago
        Thats not true Evan, because when I was playing this flying game on xbox....j/k I just wanted to say that before someone said it for real.
      • Realist 3 mths ago
        there IS a video of a small plane losing a wing at an airshow and the pilot landing it...amazing piece of flying...search you tube for Y90vnB6gUME
    • Mike Lamhurtz  •  3 mths ago
      cracks in a new plane? makes you wonder how many cracks or failures will happen as the jets age.
    • Scott  •  3 mths ago
      too bad...should have gone with a boeing....that is what you get when you buy inferior products.
    • Jojoman  •  3 mths ago
      Cracks in metal and it's just a small repair on brand new planes? Okay, you keep believing that.
    • Campy  •  Federal Way, Washington  •  3 mths ago
      If it ain't a Boeing I ain't going!
    • TimBrock  •  Denver, Colorado  •  3 mths ago
      LOOKS LIKE TROUBLE FOR THE $300 MILLION A-380. Those cracks are small, but then, the planes are brand-new. How big will the cracks get in 5-10 years? MEANWHILE, THE NEW BOEING 787 IS DOING JUST FINE! Boeing's newest and most efficient model, the 787 "dreamliner" is a great success! 20% more fuel efficient than a comparable sized jetliner! In fact, while Airbus ("Air Bus", why would anyone want to ride a bus in the air?!") is having a hard time finding buyers for the A-380 hippotomus, Boeing is slammed with orders for their 787. So far, over 3400 orders from airlines around the globe!!
    • Tom  •  Tampa, Florida  •  3 mths ago
      Ahhh...cheaper to have insurance pay for any accident(s) rather than actually correct the real problem(s)!!! Just good business ya know! The hell with a few dead passengers and crew...
    • jerru  •  San Antonio, Texas  •  3 mths ago
      Uh huh. A network of cracks in the wings, but it poses "no threat to safety". That's why they're grounding it.

      What a crock of baloney.
    • ifly2gethi  •  , US Virgin Islands  •  3 mths ago
      If it ain't Boeing - I ain't going.
    • gator63  •  3 mths ago
      Mark my words it is a matter of time one of these airplanes is going to loose a wing in flight and people are going to die.
    • jim c  •  Nonthaburi, Thailand  •  3 mths ago
      I'm a frequent flyer and I will NEVER book a flight on the A380 it's to big and it's only a matter of time before the wings fall off this gaint palne.
    • jerry c  •  Lake Mills, Iowa  •  3 mths ago
      Ok let me get this straight, you have a plane with wing cracks, and someone ask you if the recent discovery would prompt you to check all 12 of your A380s, He Woodward said it would not. The story goes on to say that current European regulatory directive requires airlines to inspect A380s once they exceed 1,300 flight cycles," Woodward said in an email. "Currently, no Qantas A380 has completed more than 1,300 flight cycles." This would tell me that the planes have serious issues. Whether they had completed 1,300 flight cycles or not. If I were running this business all planes would have been grounded until they were checked. Why open yourself up to lawsuits by having one of your planes crash only to find the plane had serious maintenance issues where a crash could have been prevented. This company is responsible for your safety when you book with them.
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