36 cracks found in an aircraft''s wings

By Indo Asian News Service | Wednesday, February 08, 2012 | 10:09:10 PM IST (+05:30 GMT) 0 Comment

London, Feb 8 (IANS) An Airbus has been hit by a second wing scare after 36 hairline cracks were found in a single A380 superjumbo.

London, Feb 8 (IANS) An Airbus has been hit by a second wing scare after 36 hairline cracks were found in a single A380 superjumbo.

The discovery came to light during detailed inspections following a flight hit by a turbulence, prompting the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA) to order inspections on some other A380s, the Sun reported.

The cracks were no more than two centimetres in length.

The world''s largest passenger airliner -- Airbus A380 -- is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus.

According to Qantas, the flag carrier of Australia, which has 12 A380s, the cracks posed no safety threat and differed from those found by manufacturer Airbus in the wings of two other A380s last month.

The wings of Airbus planes are made in Britain.

According to Qantas, this cracking was not related to the turbulence, or specific to Qantas, but was traced back to a manufacturing issue.

"This type of cracking is different from the ''type two'' cracking found on certain A380s in the global fleet, which is now the subject of a European airworthiness directive," said an official statement by Qantas.

The future airline customers include British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic. While the BA is to take delivery of the first of 12 A380s in 2013, the first of Virgin''s eight superjumbos will arrive in 2015.

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