Spanish Airbus military plane crashes near Seville airport

Oooohhh I can see some finger pointing and political juggling happening..

Reports are suggesting that three engines failed on takeoff, due to fuel being cut off to them. They're looking at software that controls the fuel system.

m.aviationweek.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58
Problems,software and Airbus seem to be a recurring theme...Or is it just my imagination..

a reply to: Blackfinger

Boeing has had their share, they're just lucky enough to find most of them in testing. The maintenance system of the 787 was described recently as being a hypochondriac because of all the problems it reports.

Independent of the investigation, Airbus is advising a check and if necessary, replacement of all the ECU units.

www.flightglobal.com...

Depends on where the ECU came from.Airbus specific standard part or is it engine manufacturer?

a reply to: Blackfinger

Apparently Airbus identified the problem with one of their test aircraft after the crash. They said it was a quality issue with the software. I believe the software is third party.

MSN23 had new software to trim the fuel tanks, that led to the engines being shut down, and a trim situation that put them into a steep bank that was non recoverable. They were able to recover from the fuel shut off but too late.

A software bug may have cause the May 9 crash that grounded Airbus' troubled A400M military transport aircraft.

Airbus has sent an alert to customers instructing them to conduct “specific checks of the Electronic Control Units (ECU) on each of the aircraft's engines”.

Spiegel reports that the bug caused three of the transport's engines to shut down during the pre-delivery test flight. The crash killed four crew.

That A400M was to be delivered to Turkey. Following the crash, Britain, Germany and Turkey grounded their A400M fleets, but France did not.

According to Spiegel, three engines shut down after receiving “contradictory instructions” from the flight control system. The pilots tried to return to Seville airport, but the aircraft struck a power pole, crashed and burned.

www.theregister.co.uk...

Just spotted this on twitter, going by that report the black boxes still haven't been released for analysis yet either?

a reply to: solidshot

They were turned over to the French to analyze several days ago.

Germany is expected to pursue almost $33M in compensation from Airbus due to delays in the A400M program, including delays brought about by this accident.

m.ft.com...

Ooohhh thats gotta hurt..

There were no hardware problems with the aircraft at the time of the crash. Word is that the software was installed incorrectly during final assembly of the aircraft.

Airbus has criticized the Spanish authorities for not giving them the recorder data to analyze for themselves. They want to analyze the raw data for themselves and compare it to their hypothesis.

aviationweek.com...

Is European postage that slow or did the delivery van take a wrong turn?

According to Airbus today, after takeoff, engines 1,2, and 3 remained at takeoff power. The crew reduced power to flight idle in an attempt to reduce power. The three engines reduced power and stopped responding to input. Number 4 continued to respond normally.

A military plane crash in Spain was probably caused by computer files being accidentally wiped from three of its engines, according to investigators.
Plane-maker Airbus discovered anomalies in the A400M's data logs after the crash, suggesting a software fault.
And it has now emerged that Spanish investigators suspect files needed to interpret its engine readings had been deleted by mistake.
This would have caused the affected propellers to spin too slowly.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Just spotted this on the BBC, i would assume without those files the crew would have little or any control over the engines?

a reply to: solidshot

Welcome to the modern world of aviation. The pilot doesn't fly the airplane anymore. The pilot flies the computer, the computer flies the airplane

On a more serious note, I do hope they correct the problem... and fast. This can not be good for the A400M's reputation. Development problems are to be expected, but airplanes falling out of the sky gets messy very quick... It may still be a very good airplane, but with the current climate of political and media pressures the decision to continue with costly purchases of military equipment can be out of your hands...

a reply to: spaceman42

I think most of the orders they already have are safe - the UK for one doesn't have any kind of alternate plan in case the A400 doesn't pan out, but Airbus could be in for a rough ride trying to drum up more orders as well as paying penalties for late delivery.

a reply to: solidshot

Without them the engines stick with the last setting they had to keep from over torquing. That's why when they went to cruise power they stayed at takeoff power. There's no ground check either. The first warning is at 400 feet.