Spanish Airbus military plane crashes near Seville airport

At least three people have been killed in a military plane crash near Seville airport in Spain.
The plane, a new Airbus A400M, reportedly developed a fault just after take-off on a test flight.
Local media say that those on board were Spanish Airbus employees. Two have also been seriously injured.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Just Breaking by the looks of it? Will be interesting to see just what this "Fault" is and why the airbus employees were on the aircraft?

originally posted by: solidshot
Just Breaking by the looks of it? Will be interesting to see just what this "Fault" is and why the airbus employees were on the aircraft?

It was a test flight. As the Aircraft is an Airbus plane in development, it stands to reason it would be flown by Airbus employees.

Apparently, the fault caused them to attempt an emergency landing, but they hit power lines on the way in, so it might not be that the fault caused the crash directly. We shall have to wait and see what the investigators say.

This airplane was supposed to be flying in 2004, but its been a big boondoggle. Supposed to be a joint venture in Europe for a midsize military transport plane. Most countries canceled their orders because of the cost overruns and so behind schedule.

Now this.

a reply to: SunnyDee

"Most" countries haven't cancelled their orders - some have been reduced owing to various budgetary reasons, but many have already had some delivered from 2013 onwards, with a total of 174 ordered.

a reply to: stumason

That could be, my husband used to be involved in this plane, but its been a few years now. Needless to say, boondoggle may still be fitting.

There are conflicting reports. Some say six on board, some say seven. At least three are dead and at least one report says two unaccounted for. They all agree two survived with serious injuries. The aircraft are assembled there and perform predelivery test flights.

All A400M flights are temporarily suspended. This aircraft was MSN 23, and was for the Turkish Air Force.

a reply to: SunnyDee

You're of course right, it's over budget and late - but aren't they always?

a reply to: SunnyDee

That word gets thrown around with every program. The A400M encountered some early problems, but a lot of the technology was new, so of course there were going to be bugs.

They've made a lot of progress once flight testing started.

Sky news have said on twitter that Airbus have given a press release stating.

Four crew members have died and two others are in hospital

The aircraft was scheduled to be delivered in June and would have been the third delivered to Turkey.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Everybody here's got an opinion, LOL! If you would read my comments, I corrected myself, and I say "may" still be a boondoggle. I think that covered me. No need to get all corrective with me. I spoke verbatim from by spouse's opinion, which is a knowledgeable one.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: EndOfDays77

Yes, we know. Airplanes don't suffer mechanical problems and crash. It HAS to be that magic EMP from Planet X that can only be seen every third Tuesday from Antarctica.

Where they trying to do one of thse?



That's a scary thing to do with something that size.

a reply to: grey580

The evidence right now is that the crew may have been distracted dealing with their emergency, got too low too early, and hit a power pole causing the crash.

They reached 173 knots and 1765 feet before starting to descend. They impacted the ground with a 3,000 fpm descent rate at impact.

a reply to: SunnyDee

I have no doubt that he is, but as you said, it was a few years since he dealt with it. It had issues and still does, especially with the FADEC and engines, but they've made a lot of improvement.

My condolences to those affected.
Airbus most likely automation bugs, but their climbout at 173 knots? Quite an unusual airspeed for a climb

a reply to: Nochzwei

They've had a number of engine problems on early flights. Not sure if it's the FADEC software or the engines themselves. I suspect the engines though. My money is on an engine problem on climb, and they got distracted dealing with it and configuring for landing and didn't realize they were low enough to hit the tower.

It's being reported that one survivor is on a respirator, the other suffered broken bones and burns.

Germany had a flight scheduled to Norway Tuesday, but has announced their aircraft will remain grounded until the cause of the crash is known. The UK MoD has announced that A400M operations have been paused. France has remained quiet about whether they will ground the aircraft or keep flying.

originally posted by: Nochzwei
but their climbout at 173 knots? Quite an unusual airspeed for a climb

I don't know what Airbus has profiled exactly, but shakedown flights are often of out-of-norm profiles.