Air France union urge pilots to refuse to fly Airbus fitted with sensor implicated in June crash

The June 1 crash, which prompted US Airways Group Inc. and Aer Lingus Group Plc to upgrade their planes.

Alter, the Paris-based carrier’s third-largest pilots’ union, said it “deplores” Air France’s decision to continue operating twin-aisle Airbus A330 and A340 models while replacing the older sensors, made by Thales SA, over coming weeks.

The labor group said members should agree to fly A330s only when at least two of the three probes have been upgraded. 

“We’re not satisfied,” said Christophe Pesenti, an official with the union, which won about 6 percent of votes in the last ballot among pilots. “Our sole objective here is absolute safety.”
Ice damage or obstruction of the sensors may have been responsible for unreliable airspeed readings that appear to have contributed to the June 1 accident, Paul-Louis Arslanian, the chief French investigator, said five days after Air France Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Air France said on June 6 that it had begun replacing the component with a more ice-resistant version in late April, 18 months after Airbus advised customers to make the switch.

The first automated systemfailure message in a string of 24 radio alerts from the crashed jet explicitly indicated that the sensors were faulty, Alter said.

The union’s demands will have “no effect” on Air France services, said Brigitte Barrand, a spokeswoman at the airline.

“This is a recommendation from a minority union, not a strike call,” Barrand said.
The carrier’s 35 A330s and A340s each have at least one of the upgraded sensors already installed, and nine have two, Barrand said.

Caroline Philips, a spokeswoman for Neuilly-sur-Seine, France-based Thales, said the manufacturer had no comment to make while the investigation is under way.

US Airways has begun replacing its A330s’ airspeed sensors following the accident “out of an abundance of caution,” said Morgan Durrant, a spokesman. Dublin-based Aer Lingus is also “prioritizing modification” of two A330s carrying the older model in response to the Air France crash, Enda Corneille, a spokesman at the Irish airline, said in an e-mail.
Recovery Work

Brazilian and French search teams have recovered bodies as well as debris from the crashed jet as they scour the area where Flight 447 went down en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew. There were no survivors.

French ships and submarines equipped with underwater listening devices are also trying to locate the “black boxes” containing voice and data records from the cockpit, which carry battery-powered “pingers” emitting signals designed to aid the search.

The plane’s autopilot shut down at the start of a four- minute catalogue of system failures, probably because the flight computer spotted discrepancies among the readings from the three speed sensors, officials from France’s BEA accident- investigation bureau said at a news conference June 6. Beyond the autopilot shutdown, “we haven’t yet found a link between the inconsistent speed measurements and the system failures,” said Alain Bouillard, the chief technician on the inquiry.

While the mid-Atlantic is known for high-altitude storms stretching over hundreds of kilometers, there’s “no indication of an exceptional storm mass” in the area at the time of the crash, said Alain Ratier, the deputy head of the French meteorological agency.

Accurate airspeed readings are pivotal because flying too fast can damage a plane’s airframe and traveling too slowly produces an “aerodynamic stall” and loss of control. Following the crash, Air France and Toulouse, France-based Airbus both issued reminders to pilots of procedures to follow when measurements become unreliable.

The planemaker recommended in September 2007 that airlines replace the Thales speed sensors, known as Pitot tubes, on its single-aisle A320-series planes as well as the A330 and A340.

In its June 6 statement, Air France said it waited until April to begin installing the new sensors because it wasn’t until the beginning of this year that their high-altitude effectiveness for the A330 was demonstrated in lab tests.

Malaysian Airline System Bhd. finished upgrading the Thales sensors on its A330slast September, said Mohd Roslan Ismail, the carrier’s chief maintenance manager, in an e-mailed reply. Local long-haul competitor AirAsia X said it had upgraded the one A330 it purchased before the older part was discontinued.
600 A330s

In total, more than 600 A330s are in service globally with about 70 carriers, according to Airbus’s Web site.

Delta Air Lines Inc., the world’s biggest carrier, had no comment on whether it has replaced the sensors on A330s acquired through the acquisition of Northwest Airlines last year, spokeswoman Betsy Talton said.

Kingfisher Airlines acquired all five of its A330s after the older sensor was discontinued, with the newer version already installed, according to Prakash Mirpuri, a spokesman at the Bangalore, India-based carrier.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Qantas Airways Ltd. said that their A330s are equipped with airspeed sensors from Goodrich Corp., the alternative supplier approved by Airbus, and that they’re unaware of any safety issues or manufacturer recommendations concerning the part. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Dubai-based Emirates, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, Finnair Oyj, Stockholm-based SAS Group and Singapore Airlines Ltd. also said their A330s are fitted with the Goodrich model.

Air Canada, Rome-based Air One, Brussels Airlines, Jet Airways (India) Ltd., Garuda Indonesia, Korean Air Lines Co., Sri Lankan Airlines, Thai Airways International Pcl and Vietnam Airlines didn’t return e-mail and telephone requests for information on their A330 fleets. BMI, Philippine Airlines Inc. and Qatar Airways said information wasn’t immediately available. 

Source: Bloomberg