Dylanz Net

O.K., now that I have your attention, please note, this post is not meant to point fingers at Airbus, it speaks more to the concept that companies seeking to protect their bottom line, fail to protect our the lives of the public. So while I am pointing my finger at Airbus right now, the real concern lies in the complicated balance between government protection and the wanton desire for profits. We must fight to ensure the balance is carefully maintained but heavily in favor of our protection.

If you run a google search on “Ground the Airbus? William Cox” you will find that hundreds of blogs are following this discussion. This is big news. On May 31, 2009, an Aribuse A330 operated as Air France Flight 447 flies into a storm and tragically 216 passengers and crew fly out, spread over 53 miles with the plane’s plastic tail is found intact floating in the ocean.

Go back in time just a bit to Nov 12, 2001 over Queens New York and you have and Airbus A300-650R operated as American Airlines Flight 587 where the vertical stabilizer was ripped from the airplane and was found relatively intact floating in Jamaica Bay. None of the 251 passengers or crew survived.

January 2002 a FedEx Airbus A300 freighter experiences uncommanded rudder inputs. In subsequent tests, the rudder actuator forced the rudder to tear a hole around its hinges. Hydraulic fluid caused the composite materials to delaminate. But the bottom line is the actuator damaged the airplane!

Mar 6, 2005, Air Transat Flight 961 was operating an Airbus A310-300 with 262 passengers. The crew felt strange vibrations and a bang, but managed to execute an safe emergency landing. They found the rudder had been torn from the airplane!

Nov 27, 2005, FedEX discovered extensive damage to the composites on their rudder apparently caused by hydraulic fluid. This discovery led to requirement for frequent and extensive testing on composite rudders of about 20 airplanes. This test barely scratches the surface of the the over 5,000 aircraft of similar design.

But wait, there’s more. Nov 18, 2008, an aircraft leased by XL Airways from Air New Zealand crashes during a test flight preparing it for return to Air New Zealand. This A320 disintegrated at low altitude with its plastic tail floating at the crash site. Was this tail also ripped off? It is unkown and may never be known.

The Boeing 777 also has a composite tail. But the stresses are not concentrated at one attachment point as in the Air Bus Design. The composites are tied into the aluminum structure of the aircraft spreading the load.

So the question I am posing here is not whether composite tails are safe or not. The question is whether an aircraft design that can cause the aircraft to damage itself can continue to generate revenue with impunity. Shouldn’t there be greater scrutiny? Who can provide this? Do we the public demand to fly non Airbus aircraft? Can our governments band together to lcoate the cause and deficiency of the aircraft? Are the governments associated with Airbus to be implicated in a coverup? What conspiracy theories can we generate? But more importantly, when lives are on the line, shouldn’t we ask for more from our governments?

D
Source: American Chronicle

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 28th, 2009 at 10:57 am and is filed under Aircraft, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.