But the Concorde was a nice looking ride as well...
Posted on 10/15/2005 3:29:42 AM PDT by lowbuck
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports on the storm surrounding an aerospace engineer who raised safety fears on the A380
Joseph Mangan thought he was doing Airbus a favour when he warned of a small but potentially lethal fault in the new A380 super-jumbo, the biggest and most costly passenger jet ever built. Airbus A380 The A380 is the world's most ambitious aircraft, a joint effort by the French, Germans, British and Spanish.
Instead, Europe's aviation giant rubbished his claims, and now he faces ruin, a morass of legal problems, and - soon - an Austrian prison. Mr Mangan is counting the days at his Vienna flat across the street from Schonbrünn Palace, wondering whether the bailiffs or the police will knock first.
An American aerospace engineer, he has discovered that Austria offers scant protection to whistleblowers. Bankrupt, he is surviving with his wife and three children on gifts of food from fellow Baptists in Vienna. Having failed to stump up a €150,000 (£100,000) fine for breaching a court gag order, he now faces a year behind bars. His troubles began in September 2004 when he contacted the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), claiming that the cabin pressure system in the A380 might not be safe, and that this had been concealed.
Mr Mangan's message was not one that Europe wanted to hear, least of all from a garrulous American who jabbers aviation techo-babble at machine-gun speed. The A380 is the world's most ambitious aircraft, fruit of a joint effort by the French, Germans, British and Spanish. A double-decker giant, it can carry up to 856 passengers at 42,000 feet. "The symbol of what Europe can achieve," said French President Jacques Chirac as the aircraft completed its faultless maiden flight this April.
Airbus has overtaken Boeing, snatching 57pc of the big jet market. It employs 52,000 staff, a fifth in Britain where the wings are built.
Not everybody is convinced that Airbus is wise to stake so much on a project loaded with new technologies. The A380 uses glass laminates for the plane's fuselage, and questions have arisen as to whether the material might degrade under ultra-violet radiation. Airbus insists not. But any hint of hubris in one area spreads doubts about others, which is why Mr Mangan's saga is so unsettling. His role in the A380 story is no more than a bit part. He was recruited from Kansas in September 2003 to take charge of the aerospace team at TTTech Computertechnik, an Austrian firm supplying Airbus components. He has accused the firm of "intentional non-compliance" with safety rules. Public court documents in Vienna record his allegation that TTTech conspired to "keep certain information secret from the certifying authorities".
Mr Mangan alleged "human lives could be in danger", according to the document - an injunction by a Vienna judge.
TTTech denies the allegations, calling him a disgruntled ex-employee who never fitted into the team, and is now bent on revenge.
Mr Mangan claims a defect in the outflow valve control system could lead to an abrupt loss of cabin pressure, leaving passengers unconscious in as little as 20 seconds. "Normal oxygen masks don't work properly above 33,000 feet. Anybody over forty or over-weight is at a high risk of embolisms," he said.
It would take two and half minutes to bring the aircraft down to the survival altitude of 25,000 feet. Pilots would have little time to act. In the worst case, the plane could crash. "The A380 uses a set of four identical valves that could all go wrong at the same time for the same reason. The typical jet has three different systems to eliminate such a risk," he claimed. Glitches had arisen using the same operating system in February 2004 during a test in Phoenix for the Aermacchi fighter trainer, which he had helped to fix, he claimed. There were 160 cases of emergency loss of cabin pressure in Europe last year. Investigators suspect it played a role in the crash a Helios Boeing 737 flight over Greece in August, killing 121 people.
Airbus dismissed fears about the A380 as baseless. "We have examined this internally and found absolutely no reason to be concerned. The scenario made up by Mr Mangan does not exist," said spokesman David Voskuhl.
But officials at the air safety watchdog EASA said they took the concerns "extremely seriously". An EASA source told the Telegraph that the agency was "able to confirm certain statements by Mr Mangan".
A probe - conducted by the French authorities for EASA - allegedly found that TTTech was "not in conformity" with safety rules and had failed to carry out the proper tests. The key microchip was deemed "not acceptable". EASA instructed Airbus to sort out the problem before the final certification of the A380 next year. It is unclear whether this has now been done. EASA has refused to comment publicly on the details of the dispute, prompting concerns at the European Parliament. Eva Lichtenberger, an Austrian Green MEP, wrote an "urgent" letter to the agency last month demanding "prompt and extensive information on the matter".
"We cannot leave questions open like this when it comes to aircraft safety," she said.
"I have received no reply up to now. Unless I have a proper reply by next week, I will launch a formal complaint with the European Commission," she told the Telegraph.
Rüdiger Haas, a professor of aircraft manufacture at Karlsrühe University, said he "shared the reservations of Mangan" over the safety of the outflow valve controls.
"The system markedly deviates from previous specifications in aircraft construction," he told Germany's ARD television.
Mr Mangan claimed that his employers were under intense pressure to meet deadlines. The A380 venture was already €1.5billion (£850m) over budget and six months behind schedule. He claimed it would have taken two years to carry out the proper certification.
TTTech falsely classified its micro-chip as a simple "off-the-shelf" product already used in car valves in order to except it from elaborate testing rules, he claimed. This would breach both EU and US law on aircraft regulation. "I refused to sign off on the test results, but TTTech went ahead anyway," he claimed. The key papers relate to the TTPOS operating system and were allegedly dated August 24 2004.
Mr Mangan is concerned that his name may have been linked to certification, leaving him with legal liability. "That's why I have to stick it out here in Vienna until my name is cleared, " he said. French prosecutors tracked alleged negligence in the 2000 Concorde crash to an American mechanic, who now faces a manslaughter probe.
Mr Mangan said within days of reporting the alleged abuse he was sacked.
TTTech filed both a civil and criminal defamation suit - possible under Austrian law - securing a gag order on all details regarding the case. Mr Mangan refused to remain silent. "They say I can't even talk to safety officials about a threat to safety. This violates my duty to the public. People could die on that plane if they don't fix the problem," he said.
TTTech is a spin-off from the University of Vienna, specializing in "time-triggered technology".
The firm said it was forced to take action after Mr Mangan had inflicted "severe damage" to its reputation with wild allegations that he had so far been unable to substantiate.
It admits to a routine software glitch, since corrected, but said an external audit found no trace of any abuses. "What he is saying is simply not true. We checked the evidence and found nothing wrong," said the chief executive, Stefan Poledna.
He said TTTech was never informed by EASA of any alleged non-compliance, and insisted that certification was an on-going "iterative process".
"This is all very strange. It was clear the certification bar had been raised after October 2004, and we had to do a lot of double-checking, but we've never been told that anything was fundamentally wrong," he said.
For now, the first A380 is carrying out daily test flights from its base in Toulouse, racking up 350 hours of flying time.
The results are secret. Next month it will take off for its first test trip around the globe, stopping in Frankfurt, Singapore, and Sydney, before gearing up for passenger flights next year. Airbus is clearly confident that the A380 is safe. It will now have to convince prospective buyers.
Comments?
im not gonna fly on the whalejet. this chip is used in anti lock braking systems, i believe. note the professor of aircraft manufacture states that it is a deviation from the norm. so, is it new tech or is it more euroweenie incompetence? strange that this system does not incorporate at least one backup system. aircraft have multiple backups usually.
I hate flying on the A320. You won't catch me on the A380.
Why am I thinking about that plane that crashed in Greece the other month? Wasn't that some issue with the palne's oxygen or cabin pressure system?
From what little the article has here, it seems that all of the valves are somehow tied in together at least one point, making a possible failure that would also take out the back up.
watch for pieces of the A380 coming to a roof top near you
hgg, ive been following this story on my aircraft websites. in all modern aircraft, there are three valves all run by different computers, this eliminates the chance of bad data causing a catastrophic decompression. airbus has decided to change this protocol. in europe, this story came out as a typical american trying to make trouble. actually, that is easy to believe imo, as americans are way to baby like generally. however, this issue needs some serious investigation because this particular aircraft really will not be able to recover at all from such an incidence if it occurs, its simply to big and if it happens, people will be bouncing around like ping pong balls.
Ping
You are referring to the Concorde here? Ah yes. A great loss indeed.
Airbus = Scarebus
If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going.
His name will be mud until the first whalebus crashes, then he'll be a hero.
Maybe we should start a thread of guessing how long it will take for a whalebus to crash. The Titanic with wings.
I think within 6 months of beginning passenger flight.
"...americans are way to baby like generally."
Really? Do you have data to back you up, or is just your impression from watching Oprah every day or listening to the DNC?
Even with the decline of American standards in the educational system in this country, I will wager that graduates of that system understand grammar, capitalization, punctuation and spelling better than you do.
But the Concorde was a nice looking ride as well...
So baby-like we'll bomb your ass.
(Fine Boeing Product BTW)
My prayers are with this guy. What a sad story.
The original BUFF. Way better than the A380, the new BUFF.
Looking straight on toward the cockpit, the Connie looks very similar to the Concorde.
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