MELBOURNE, Feb 8 (Bernama) -- Cracks discovered on the wings of an Qantas
A380 aircraft had no effect on flight safety and it will be back in the air
within a week, says the airline.
Seven people were injured aboard the A380 when it was hit by severe
turbulence caused by storms over India during a flight from London to Singapore
last month.
After the incident, the aircraft was assessed by engineers and cleared to
continue its journey from Singapore to Sydney.
But it was grounded on Sunday after minor cracks were found during
additional precautionary inspection of the wings requested by Airbus, the
Australian Associated Press, quoted a Qantas spokeswoman, as saying on
Wednesday.
The checks turned up 36 hairline cracks.
"This cracking is not related to the turbulence or specific to Qantas but it
is traced back to a manufacturing issue.
"Airbus has confirmed that it has no effect on flight safety," the
spokeswoman added.
An inspection and repair regime had been developed and the A380, currently
at Mascot, Sydney, will be back in service within a week.
The cracks were different to those found on certain A380s in the
global fleet, which are the subject of a European airworthiness directive
issued last month, Qantas said.
The European Aviation Safety Agency ordered airlines to inspect nearly a
third of the world''s A380 superjumbo jets after Airbus found new cracks in metal
brackets inside the wings.
The Qantas spokesperson said the airline would wait for advice from Airbus
on whether further inspection should be carried out on other aircraft.
-- BERNAMA
NDC NDC VMD
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