JAKARTA, Indonesia – A rudder control system problem that had occurred 23 times in the previous 12 months coupled with the pilots’ response led to last year’s crash of an AirAsia plane that killed all 162 people on board, Indonesian investigators said Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Committee said an analysis of Flight 8501’s data recorder showed the rudder control system had sent repeated warnings to the pilots during the Dec. 28 flight between the Indonesian city of Surabaya and Singapore.
Aircraft maintenance records for the Airbus A320 showed that problems with the rudder system had been reported 23 times during the year prior to the crash, with more frequent occurrences in the three months immediately before the accident. Investigators said the problem was caused by a cracked soldering joint on an electronic circuit board.
After the fourth warning during the flight, the pilots attempted to reset the control system while flying the plane manually, which caused it to enter a prolonged stall from which they were unable to recover, and the plane plowed into the Java Sea, the investigators said.
Investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said the plane’s voice recorder indicated possible confusion between the pilot and co-pilot. He said at one point the pilot said “pull down,” but in fact the plane was ascending.
“It seemed that there was a miscommunication between the pilot and co-pilot after the fourth fault,” he said.
Bad weather conditions did not play a role, as initially believed, the investigators said.
The last contact between the pilots and air traffic control indicated they were entering stormy weather. They asked to climb from 32,000 feet (9,753 metres) to 38,000 feet (11,582 metres) to avoid threatening clouds, but were denied permission because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the plane dropped off the radar. No distress signal was issued.
“There is much to be learned here for AirAsia, the manufacturer and the aviation industry,” AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes tweeted. “We will not leave any stone unturned to make sure the industry learns from this tragic incident.”
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EASA and FAA certify PW powered A320NEO
The world’s best-selling single aisle aircraft, the A320neo, has received joint Type Certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on 24th November 2015. The certified aircraft is powered by Pratt & Whitney Pure Power PW1100G-JM engines.
The EASA A320neo type Certificate was signed by EASA’s Certification Director Trevor Woods and the FAA A320neo Type Certificate by Jeffrey Duven, FAA Manager of Transport Airplane Directorate – Aircraft Certification Service. The Type Certificates were handed over to Airbus’ Executive Vice President Engineering, Charles Champion and Airbus A320neo Chief Engineer Pierre-Henri Brousse.
“This double seal of approval represents a great achievement for Airbus. It recognizes the hard work performed by all the teams at Airbus and Pratt & Whitney. It demonstrates the A320neo is meeting all requirements,” said Fabrice Brégier, Airbus President and CEO. “The A320neo is now cleared for its first delivery and ready to offer many airlines its winning combination of unbeatable economics and outstanding cabin comfort.”
The A320neo successfully completed a rigorous programme of certification which tested its airframe and systems well beyond their design limits to ensure the aircraft successfully met all airworthiness criteria.
The three flight test aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney engines successfully accumulated over 1,070 flight hours in some 350 flights. Of these 1,070 flight test hours, 300 were completed with the same aircraft in an airline like environment to ensure operational maturity at entry into service.
The A320neo with Pratt & Whitney engines is the first variant in the NEO Family to receive Type Certification. The A320neo with CFM engines will be certified in the coming months, the A321neo and A319neo in both engines variants will follow.
The A320neo Family incorporates latest technologies including new generation engines and Sharklet wing tip devices, which together deliver more than 15 percent in fuel savings from day one and 20 percent by 2020 with further cabin innovations. Launched on 1st December 2010, the A320neo offers airlines an engine choice between the Pratt & Whitney Pure Power PW1100G-JM and the CFM International LEAP 1A engines. With more than 4,300 orders received from over 75 customers since its launch in 2010, the A320neo Family has captured some 60 percent share of the market.
Airbus
PRC (China Aviation Supplies Holding) places massive Airbus order
China Aviation Supplies Holding Company (CAS) has signed a General Terms Agreement (GTA) with Airbus for the acquisition of 30 A330 Family aircraft and 100 A320 Family aircraft. The 30 A330s are the firm up of the commitment signed in June 2015. The GTA was signed in Beijing by Li Hai, President and CEO of CAS, and Fabrice Brégier, President and CEO of Airbus, in the presence of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“We are grateful to CAS, one of our longest standing customers, for its continued confidence in Airbus and in the versatile A330 Family as well as the best-selling A320 Family,” said Fabrice Bregier, President and CEO of Airbus. “With these 30 A330 options now firmed up, CAS’ total number of orders for the popular Airbus widebody is this year 75 aircraft. This strong demand in China for the A330 has been the key driver behind our decision to set up an A330 Completion and Delivery Centre in Tianjin, China next to the A320 Family final assembly line and delivery centre in Tianjin, which has assembled and delivered more than 240 Airbus single aisle aircraft. This will enable us to be even closer to our customers and to take our long-standing mutual beneficial partnership with China to a new height.”
The first agreements on setting up an A330 C&DC in Tianjin, China were signed by Airbus and Chinese partners in March 2014 and witnessed by French President Francois Hollande and visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping. This was followed in October 2014, when Airbus, the Tianjin Free Trade Zone (TJFTZ) and the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) in Berlin, Germany, in the presence of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, A framework agreement was signed in July 2015 in Toulouse.
According to the Airbus global market forecast, China is leading the world in passenger growth. China’s domestic air traffic will become the world’s largest within the next 10 years, and traffic volumes will quadruple in the next 20 years. In the next 20 years, Airbus forecasts a demand in China for some 5,400 new passenger and freighter aircraft including 1,700 widebody aircraft like the A330, A350 and A380.
At present, the in-service Airbus fleet with Chinese operators comprises over 1,200 aircraft (over 1,000 A320 Family aircraft, over 160 A330 Family aircraft and five A380s as well as Airbus freighters and corporate jets).
The A330 is one of the most popular widebody aircraft ever and has to date won over 1,500 orders, with over 1,200 flying with more than 100 operators worldwide. Airbus is investing hundreds of millions of Euros per year in the A330 Family to maintain the aircraft at the leading edge of innovations. The A330 Family is part of the world’s most modern and comprehensive widebody product line, which also includes the larger A350 XWB and double deck A380
The A330 family seats between 250 and 440 passengers and is one of the most efficient aircraft in the world, with the lowest operating costs in its category. Thanks to the continuous introduction of a large number of innovations, the A330 remains the most profitable and best performing aircraft in its class, boasting an average operational reliability of 99.4 percent. Worldwide an A330 Family aircraft takes off or lands every 20 seconds.
The A320 Family, seat from 100 to 240 passengers, seamlessly covering the entire single-aisle segment from low to high-density configurations on domestic to longer-range routes. To date, Airbus has sold more than 12,200 A320 Family aircraft and delivered over 6,700 CEO to more than 300 operators worldwide.
Airbus is the world’s leading aircraft manufacturer of passenger airliners, ranging in capacity from 100 to more than 500 seats. Airbus has design and manufacturing facilities in France, Germany, the UK, and Spain, and subsidiaries in the US, China, India, Japan and in the Middle East. In addition, it provides the highest standard of customer support and training through an expanding international network.
Airbus
China signed a deal to buy 130 planes from Airbus Group SE worth $17 billion, firming up purchase options announced earlier this year and intensifying the race to dominate what’s projected to become the world’s biggest aircraft market.
The agreement for 30 twin-aisle A330 and 100 single-aisle A320 planes was signed Thursday during a Beijing meeting between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Airbus said in a statement. The purchase was among a number of deals signed at the meeting.
Airbus and Boeing Co. are competing to carve up the Chinese aircraft market, expected to become the world’s largest over the next two decades. China’s economic growth and the emergence of budget airlines are making air travel affordable to more people, prompting carriers such as Air China Ltd. and China Southern Airlines Co. to expand their fleets.
“Chinese demand for travel is growing and China will need more planes to meet that demand,” said Shukor Yusof, founder of Endau Analytics consultancy in Singapore.
Foreign Plants
The 30 A330s firm up options taken in June, when China announced an order for 45 of the wide-body aircraft plus options for 30 more. The follow-on order will help Airbus bridge the gap as it moves from the existing A330 model to a variant with more fuel-efficient engines that will enter service in 2017.
Airbus announced plans last December to cut monthly production to six A330s a month by 2016, from 10 now, as it transitions to the newer model. An order for 30 more planes means five months of work for the A330 line.
China has encouraged foreign planemakers to expand their local footprints as its own fledging aerospace industry takes shape. Airbus assembles A320s, most of which go to the Chinese market, at a factory in Tianjin. The European planemaker said in July it was finalizing an agreement with Chinese authorities to build a completion center for A330s.
Boeing won an order last month for 300 jets from Chinese carriers and lessors. The company said at the time it would soon open its first Chinese plant for 737 single-aisle planes.
Booming Market
Chinese airlines will need 6,330 new planes in the next 20 years, worth some $950 billion, according to a Boeing forecast.
China’s growing demand also is attracting interest from Russia, which plans to work with China on a wide-body plane that would compete with Boeing and Airbus jets. Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. and Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, known as Comac, are discussing a work plan building on a memorandum of understanding signed in May 2014, Russian Deputy Industry Minister Andrey Boginsky said earlier this year.
China will become the world’s biggest air travel market by 2034, with one in five passengers traveling to, from or within the country, the International Air Transport Association said in April. About 70,000 flights — some 10 percent of the world’s total — operate to, from, or within mainland China every week, or according to IATA.
By 2020, 13 Chinese airlines will have more than 100 planes in their fleets, up from six carriers as of November 2014, the CAPA Centre for Aviation said last year. China Southern is Asia’s biggest carrier by fleet size with over 400 planes, which moved more than 100 million passengers last year.
Bloomberg Business