Airlines brace for Airbus A380 door fix requirement

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Airlines brace for Airbus A380 door fix requirement
22 June,2014

Airbus A380 operators are bracing for a major modification program to replace the doors on their double-decker aircraft, after Airbus issued an All Operators Telex (AOT) confirming a “door noise issue”.

The pending modification is being described by one A380 operator as even “more serious” than the cracks previously discovered in the wing fittings within the jumbo jet’s wings.

As a result, this carrier has stopped all other modification work of its A380s. “All 10 doors on our aircraft will have to be modified or replaced.”

A separate source says the problem stems from micro cracks caused by vibration and was found in the door itself, not the surrounding frame structure. But there seems to be some question over whether the modification will involve the aircraft frame as well. What is clear, says a source, is “this is a very extensive modification program and airlines affected have been briefed”.

In January, a Singapore Airlines A380 made an emergency landing in Azerbaijan due to a loss of cabin pressure. TheSydney Morning Heraldreported that in responding to a flood of FaceBook posts, Singapore Airlines noted that noise was reported from a door during an earlier flight of the same plane. The newspaper reported that passenger Matthew G. Johnson said a “loud air noise was heard from the door five rows in front” shortly after take-off from Heathrow in London, and upon questioning, a crew member allegedly told him that the door had a “mild” leaking seal.

In an interview withRunway Girl Networktoday, an Airbus spokesman said the airframer has “identified and understands the root cause of the A380 door noise issue”. He says the manufacturer’s dedicated team has “defined a final fix with our door suppliers”, and that Airbus is working “in full alignment with EASA to achieve airworthiness approval for the solution. Airbus is defining the roll-out of the retrofit solution in the near future to minimize inconvenience for operators.”

In the meantime, he assures, the A380 “is safe to fly. Its airworthiness and safety is protected by an inspection program and remedial actions via All Operators Telex.”

Airbus declined to comment on whether it believes an airworthiness directive (AD) is pending, and EASA could not be immediately reached for comment. A source tellsRunway Girl Network, “This is another multi-million dollar modification program with significant costs to Airbus.”

Airlines brace for Airbus A380 door fix requirement | Runway GirlRunway Girl

 

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EASA not ruling out AD to address potential for door cracks on A380
23 June,2014


EASA has not ruled out the possibility of issuing an airworthiness directive (AD) to address the potential for micro cracks to form on Airbus A380 doors.

The agency “is currently evaluating the safety case before deciding for the appropriate way forward”, EASA safety information and communications officer Dominique Fouda toldRunway Girl Networkin answer to a specific question about when an AD might be issued.

“At this stage, the root cause is identified and understood for the A380 door noise issue. Airbus has defined a final fix and is developing modifications when necessary to solve the issue,” says Fouda.

He stresses that there is “a strict inspection regime in place”, as described in an All Operators Telex (AOT) published in January by Airbus. This regime is designed “to identify potential cracks and remedial actions which protects the safety of the A380. The A380 is safe to fly.”

Runway Girl Network yesterday reported that A380 operators are bracing for the door fix. The pending modification was described by an A380 operator as even “more serious” than the cracks previously discovered in the wing fittings within the jumbo jet’s wings.

Though an Airbus spokesman provided comment about the issue yesterday – saying the airframer is defining the roll-out of its retrofit solution in the near future to minimize inconvenience for operators, and assuring that the A380 is safe to fly – company executive VP programs Tom Williams gave a far more detailed response during Airbus’ ‘Innovation Days’ held earlier this month in Toulouse.

Asked by a journalist how serious is the door issue, and how much it will cost to fix, Williams said: “Probably most of you are aware we had a particular incident, which was Baku, where we had the diversion of the Singapore aircraft.” In that incident, the A380 had to make an emergency landing due to loss of cabin pressure. Passengers on board the Singapore flight reported there was a lot of noise from one of the A380′s doors,as reported by various news agencies, including theAviation Herald, which also posted pictures of what it said was the damaged door.

However, prior to the Singapore incident, said Williams, Airbus had fielded “complaints from customers about noise on A380 doors, and that was mainly coming from [a] seal issue. And so, we also at the same time, were doing work on a fatigue model, and the fatigue model that we were running up in Dresden [Germany] has actually come to the end of the fatigue test exercise, which is about three times the design service code…of 19,000 cycles on the A380. So we came with some experience from that. We found some issues of fatigue earlier than we had anticipated, still inside the goals, but still not want we wanted to see, and we were concerned about particularly the cover plate, and that’s the strip of metal that goes across the top of the door, and I guess that’s probably what you’re aware of from Baku, where we saw that that piece of metal went into a resonance, which is a high frequency aerodynamic resonance. And that resulted in a tearing back of a piece of the door. As a result of that we’ve looked again at all of the door design, and in combination of what we learned out of the fatigue sample, we’ve recognized there are some areas which, although they are not a safety issue, they will be an issue longer term so aircraft are fine to fly today.”

Williams said the Airbus AOT “told the airlines that if they had a particular noise problem that there is an ultra sonic test they had to do just to check if there was any issues of cracks or any other fatigue issues. We did find a relatively small number of doors that had that issue; those doors are, again, safe to fly on for a certain period of time.” Furthermore, he said Airbus “won’t be replacing doors” but will be applying “local reinforcements to overcome issues such as the door cover plate”. This is a program that Airbus will “agree with airlines, and we’ll do that on a progressive basis” probably during C checks.

The Airbus executive added, “We’ll check all the doors. Less than 10% of the doors checked have had problems so it’s a relatively small number.”

However, certain other industry stakeholders describe the issue in more serious tones. One A380 operator said it believes every A380 in its fleet will need to have doors modified or replaced.

I asked EASA’s Fouda if it is the agency’s understanding that only a percentage of doors have shown to have problems. He responded, “As said [previously] we are still evaluating the safety case.”

The Airbus spokesman declined to comment on whether it believes an AD is forthcoming. He suggested that such talk was “pure speculation” at this time.

See Airbus’ Williams address the issue of A380 door cracks in the AirInsight video below (beginning at minute 17:49).

EASA not ruling out AD to address potential for door cracks on A380 | Runway GirlRunway Girl