An Air France flight from Rome to Paris earlier this month briefly lost its speed readings due to faulty sensors, pilots said on Tuesday, in the latest safety scare involving speed sensors.
Several problems with speed sensors, or pitot tubes, made by Thales have been reported since 2008, and investigators are looking to see if they played a role in last month’s fatal crash of an Air France A330.
A spokesman for France’s SNPL national pilot union, Erick Derivry, said the union would ask Air France to see whether the latest incident was similar to those previously reported.
If it was, the union would ask the airline to replace its Thales sensors on its Airbus fleet with models manufactured by Goodrich.
Air France replaced an earlier Thales model on its planes with a more recent version following the June crash of one of its Airbus A330s. All 228 people aboard died when the Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight crashed into the sea.
But the latest incident on July 13 occurred with a new model, the company said.
“This incident was caused by new sensors. It lasted a few seconds, with no consequence for the passengers, and an analysis is under way in cooperation with the manufacturers and investigators,” an Air France spokeswoman said.
The SNPL spokesman said a calculator that converts pressure into a speed reading might also have to be replaced.
In June, under pressure from another pilots’ union after the crash, Air France changed all pitot tubes on its A330 and A340 planes, having already changed them on its A320s.
(Reuters)
By: Arabella-Cox - 1st August 2009 at 10:47
Circumstantial evidence now seems to point to the Thales pitot tubes at least possibly playing a part in the AF447 disaster. I know there is yet no proof, but I sure hope that SIA’s Airbus fleet carries Goodrich tubes, given that I’m flying with them at Christmas.
By: steve rowell - 1st August 2009 at 02:27
The top pilots’ union at Air France demanded on Wednesday that European airspeed monitors be replaced by U.S.-made models across the airline’s fleet after a new malfunction was reported this month.
An Airbus 320 equipped with new speed probes made by European electronics giant Thales was flying from Rome to Paris on July 13 when the sensors, known as pitot tubes, broke down, Air France said late Tuesday.
The SNPL pilots’ union demanded the Thales monitors be replaced by those made by U.S.-based Goodrich, which provides pitot tubes to 70 per cent of the world’s aircraft.
Air France decided on June 12 to upgrade all pitot probes after pilots raised the alarm following the crash of Flight 447 in the Atlantic with 228 people on board, the airline’s worst disaster in its 75-year history.
The union said the Goodrich models’ record showed it had been problem-free.
“We are asking that the fleet be modified with sensors that have not been the object of any complaint,” said union spokesman Erick Derivry.
The SNPL “wants the entire fleet to be equipped with Goodrich models that would replace the Thales sensors,” he told AFP.
Air France said the malfunction of the probes on the Rome to Paris flight “lasted only a few seconds” and did not jeopardize the safety of the passengers.
Another pilots’ union earlier this month accused French and European air safety bodies of ignoring warnings about the faulty speed probes such as variations in airspeed data in severe weather conditions.
Source: Canada.com
By: Hand87_5 - 29th July 2009 at 09:44
Based on what I read in the French press the type involved was an A320 though.
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July 29, 2009 at 12:18 am