Korean Air said Thursday it plans to check its fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbo jets for cracks on parts inside the wings as ordered by Europe’s air safety authority.
The European Aviation Safety Agency on Wednesday ordered checks on the entire global fleet of A380 jets, extending a previous order for nearly a third of the planes to be inspected.
“Korean Air plans to conduct close examinations on all of our A380 aircraft before the deadline in cooperation with Airbus for safe operations,” a Korean Air official said.
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An Airbus A380 performs during a demonstration flight at the 49th Paris Air Show at Le Bourget airport, east of Paris, in June 2011. (AP-Yonhap News) |
The EASA’s latest airworthiness directive says that planes which have flown more than 1,384 takeoff and landing cycles must be inspected within three weeks of Feb. 13.
Planes that have flown between 1,216 and 1,384 cycles must be checked within six weeks or another 84 cycles, whichever comes first. The youngest aircraft, those which have made less than 1,216 takeoffs and landings, must be inspected by the time they clock up 1,300 cycles.
The order comes after the agency last month issued a first airworthiness directive calling for “a detailed visual inspection” of the aircraft’s so-called “wing rib feet” ― the metal brackets that connect the wing’s ribs to its skin.
Airbus said it has developed repair kits for the problem, which are currently being installed, and that despite the problems the aircraft remained safe to fly.
By Kim So-hyun (
sophie@heraldcorp.com)
