COLOGNE – Airlines with long-haul Airbus planes have been given five days to check air speed probes for defects similar to one that might have led to an air disaster over the Atlantic in June, the European Aviation Safety Agency said yesterday.
AFP said the EASA airworthiness directive concerns carriers that fly Airbus A330/A340 jetliners equipped with Goodrich probes.
“Several reports have recently been received of loose pneumatic quick-disconnect unions,” on the probes in question, the agency said, adding that the problem might lie at the “equipment manufacturing level”.
The fault could result in an air leak that could in turn provide false airspeed indications, the statement said.
An agency spokeswoman said airlines had five days to verify the probes and report their findings to Airbus.
In August, the EASA ordered airlines to replace probes made by the French group Thales on Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft after the crash of an Air France jet flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1.
That plane crashed into the Atlantic, killing all 228 people on board.
