Given that this is the nth Airbus to fall out of the sky with ' Nothing wrong with it, and it didn't suffer a complete systems lockup / failure. Just like the others didn't '
Who here really wants to travel by Airbus, the Ford Pinto of the sky ?
Anyone know just how many of these things have had systems lockups or just crashed with no explanation why ?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t ... ericas/article6523467.ece
"...This would strengthen an emerging consensus in the aviation world that flaws in the electronics of the Airbus led to the loss of control. In the midst of a tropical storm, at night, the crew would have faced enormous difficulty in flying without basic flight information. A small variation outside the acceptable speed range would have put the aircraft into a stall or an “overspeed” condition from which it could not recover.
Similar incidents have been reported by Air France and other companies operating the airliner. The French airline rushed through the replacement of all the pitot tubes — the outside speed sensors — on its A330 fleet last week, after acknowledging a “significant” number of failures in recent months.
Blocked pitots alone would not cause the disaster, analysts have said, and suspicion has fallen on the electronics at the heart of the Airbus. Experts suspect a flaw in the behaviour of the three independent air data inertial reference units which collect raw flight parameters such as speed and altitude.
One such faulty unit was blamed for a near disaster on a Qantas Airbus A330 over Western Australia last October. Confused data caused the flight control computers to register — mistakenly — an imminent stall and to disconnect the automatic pilot. They commanded a strong downward pitch from which the crew, fortunately, managed to recover, although 14 people were injured.
Airbus, Air France and the European Aviation Safety Agency have all voiced full confidence in the Airbus and dismissed all theories as speculation."
Well, yes, they all have money tied up with it working and being safe don't they ?
http://www.macdoctor.co.nz/?p=2287
"Airbus will be worried. There are now a series of alarming incidences, many of which involve the electronics of the aircraft. It will not be reassuring that the last message from Air France 447 reported electrical faults and cabin depressurisation. Does this point to a design fault in the aircraft itself? The list of problems is worrying:
* 07.10.2008 Qantas A330 suddenly dives for no apparent reason. 70 people injured.
* 29.10.2008 Qantas A330 suffered a navigational radar failure and had to follow an Air New Zealand flight.
* 14.11.2008 Qantas A330 suffered a radar failure and had to return to its departure airport.
* 28.11.2008 Qantas A330 has an oil light come on for one engine
* 28.11.2008 Air New Zealand A320 crashed on a test flight, killing 7. A possible problem with the avionics was mooted.
* 14.12.2008 Air France A321 suffered a double engine stall, landed safely
* 01.06.2009 Air France A330 crashes into Atlantic ocean. Cause unknown but had reported electronic problems.
I don’t know about you, but that is a scary list – and it only includes the recent incidents that I know about. It is particularly worrying that three of these incidents involved A330s falling out of the sky over water for no apparent reason."
As the company that makes them say's that they're safe I'm sure they are, after all Air NZ is buying them and I'LL NEVER FLY ON ONE !
Let a certain R Hammond test the things !