Official Airbus Repair Kit:
Posted on 03/31/2008 10:50:25 AM PDT by Abathar
United Airlines found faulty wiring in the landing gears of three of its Airbus A320s that officials say may have caused two runway accidents, according to the Wall Street Journal's Web site.
The disclosures have put U.S. airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration under a microscope, the report said.
Debate over how the improper wiring happened and whether tests to verify the wiring are sufficient has followed the runway incidents, the Journal report said.
Debate also has centered on whether outsourced maintenance has had a hand in United's difficulties, the Journal report noted.
In late February, a United plane skidded off a Wyoming runway, while a similar incident happened months earlier when one of United's A320s veered off a runway at Chicago's O'Hare airport, according to the Journal report.
No deaths or major accidents resulted in either incident, the report said.
According to the Journal, the February accident was followed by a discovery that jetliner's antiskid system likely malfunctioned because of improperly connected wiring.
Multiple inspections of United's A320 landing-gear wiring have since been conducted, the report said.
The Journal report on United follows days of wiring inspections last week by Delta Air Lines and American Airlines that resulted in hundreds of flight cancellations.
The need for the checks arose from an audit of American conducted by a joint team of inspectors from the Texas-based airline and the FAA.
A good CYA and finger pointing excuse to shift the eyes everywhere but where it belongs.
Another reason NOT to buy Airbus planes for our Air Force tankers.
Don’t know if it is an Airbus design flaw or simply shoddy maintenance. A former friend is a mechanic for United up in Chicago, to be honest I wouldn’t trust him to change my oil.
Just your liberal, pro-union media inserting subliminal messages into the news.
“A good CYA and finger pointing excuse to shift the eyes everywhere but where it belongs.”
Maybe, but the A&P training in this country is much tougher and more comprehensive than in most other countries. I think United has outsourced some of it’s heavy maintenance to China. Make what you will of that.
Fly by wire, crash by wire.
Fly by wire, crash by wire.
This appears to be related to maintenance, rather than a design flaw.
Airbus might bear a small portion of the responsibility it they dictated how to test this wiring after maintenance, but unless that's the case it is hard to see how this is the manufacturer's fault.
Do we have any English teachers around here?
If it can be hooked up wrong, then I can easily point to a manufacturer.
I can't even plug a 2-wire an under-hood light connector on my old pickup in backwards, let alone a USB cable on my cameras etc.
One way only harness connectors have been the norm for decades; and if more than one loom is involved, then different configurations making it impossible to cross-connect.
I would expect the same, at a minimum, on an airliner.
Haven't set foot on a plane in in over 30 years; and don't plan to any time in the next 30 or more.
If God wanted people to fly, He would have given us starships, instead of cars and ocean liners.
I've seen lots of people screw up wiring in their cars, and I've seen a lot of people make computer cables incorrectly.
I've gotten bad parts from reputable sources as well.
They could have possibly even damaged the replacement harness when installing it or when getting it out of the packaging. A lot of stuff gets damaged by over zealous people with box cutters.
Guilty.
When they said “improperly connected” I did assume they didn’t rewire..
I also didn’t consider that that could also mean they didn’t fully engage any connector locks.
Ping.
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