Airbus wings crack but "are safe to fly"

Airbus has admitted that there are manufacturing and design flaws in the wings of the A380 super-sized passenger jets but insists that the planes are safe to fly. Cracks were found in a small number of parts used in the wings and reported to Airbus by different airline operators, according to a Business Report report.

26 Jan 2012

(Image: Lukasz Golowanow, via Wikimedia Commons)

Business Report reports that Airbus has confirmed that its planes do develop cracks, but has not given any indication of what it intends to do to correct the faults. Tom Williams, executive vice-president of programmes for Airbus says that the "A380 is still safe to fly."

According to the Business Report report, he says the cracks were caused by a combination of the choice of aluminium allowed for certain wing brackets as well as stresses imposed at two stages of the manufacturing process.

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