A just released A400M factory crashed Saturday near Seville.
Military transport aircraft remains the main ball of Airbus.
The financial fiasco that was already the A400M military transport aircraft turned into a nightmare for Airbus Group, with the crash of a device, Saturday near Seville, that killed four dead and two seriously injured pilots and test engineers, all Spaniards. The device, which had just left the assembly line in Seville, crashed near the airport, a few minutes after takeoff, for reasons still unknown. Apparently, the crew reportedly asked to land three minutes after take-off, which would accredit the hypothesis of a technical problem. But in attempting to land, the aircraft hit power lines bordering the airport. The two black boxes of the device were found.
“We are deeply hurt by the accident of the A400M and the death of our employees; we will do everything to help the authorities in the investigation that begins “ said Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus Group in a brief statement released Saturday.
The aircraft, registered MS023, was intended for the Turkish army. A total of 12 copies of the A400M were delivered to the French Armed Forces (6) British (2), Turkey (2), German (1) and Malaysia (1), since the first delivery to France in August 2013.
evil Point Program
Following the crash, the UK, Germany, Turkey and Malaysia have announced their decision to nail their ground A400M, as a precautionary measure. However, the French army, which remains the main customer of the A400M with six aircraft in service and 50 controlled, has not suspended flights A400M Atlas, already engaged in external operations in Mali. But only priority flights will be allowed, said the defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian. While many small issues marred the entry into service of the A400M, causing an availability rate “insufficient” as the Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, no incidents grave had been reported.
side for Airbus, it is the first time that a pending delivery device is the victim of a crash. It is also the most serious accident on a new model since the crash in 1988, one of the first Air France A320 during a demonstration flight. But in the case of the A400M, this drama is all the more serious because it adds to a long list of setbacks and casts suspicion on an already very bad program to point.
Launched in 2003 as part of cooperation between seven countries (Germany, France, Spain, UK, Belgium, Luxembourg, Turkey) to replace the aging fleets of C 130 Transall and the A400M program has already accumulated four years behind schedule and billions of euros in costs. The total bill would be passed twenty billion to over $ 30 billion, to only 174 aircraft ordered to date and one customer – Malaysia – Export. And despite several organizational changes and patterns – the latest in January – delivery delays are not set and performance of the device still does not conform to the initial commitments.
Bruno Trévidic, Les Echos
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