COLOGNE – Airlines were yesterday ordered to replace hundreds of crucial instruments of the type suspected as a cause of June’s Air France Airbus crash, which killed all 228 on board.
Investigators have focused on the possibility the external speed sensors on the A330, known as pitot tubes, iced over and gave false readings to the aircraft’s computers as it ran into a thunderstorm off the coast of Brazil.
Each modern jet airliner carries at least three of the “L”-shaped metal pitot tubes that jut from the forward fuselage.
The European Aviation Safety Agency said it would issue an airworthiness directive ordering all aircraft using tubes made by Thales to be fitted with at least two from rival company Goodrich.
It said a directive – effectively an order to the aircraft operators – would be issued within the next 14 days. It described the move as precautionary, based on information analysed in recent weeks.
An Airbus spokesman said the company had also recommended airlines using its aircraft to exchange two of the three pitot tubes on each of its A330 and A340 aircraft from the Thales type to the Goodrich product.
The recommendation would create a mix of sensors, which would increase safety if one of the systems failed. The spokesman said the move would affect 200 aircraft of various airlines and noted it remained unclear whether incorrect airspeed data had contributed to the crash. The black boxes have not been recovered. – (AP)