Werdywerd From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 487 posts, RR: 1 Posted (7 years 6 months 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 6284 times:
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators Wednesday ordered inspections of 200 Airbus aircraft to prevent their front wheels from locking sideways, two months after a JetBlue Airways Corp. plane carrying 146 people was forced to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles.
U.S. airlines must determine whether certain braking and steering units were installed in the planes' nose landing gear, the Federal Aviation Administration said in its order. Any landing gear with those units must undergo additional inspections and may need to be replaced, the agency said.
A JetBlue A320 jet made a safe emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 21 after pilots found the front landing gear stuck with the wheels turned 90 degrees. The cause was the failure of some lugs and a braking and steering control unit, FAA spokesman Les Dorr said.
The order covers A318, A319, A320 and A321 models and would affect 650 planes worldwide if other aviation regulators ordered similar reviews, Dorr said.
U.S. airlines must begin inspections Wednesday and complete any work within 90 days, he said.
Airbus issued instructions Oct. 18 on how to perform the inspections, the FAA said. JetBlue has finished examinations on its fleet and found no problems, an airline spokeswoman said.
KC135TopBoom From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 11711 posts, RR: 52 Reply 1, posted (7 years 6 months 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 6213 times:
This is just a routine AD issued by the FAA. They issue hundreds of ADs requiring different inspections or modifcations on just about every type of airplane flying.
The story sounds like it is only Airbus airplanes with a problem. The truth is issues show up, sometimes years after an airplane is certified. Today it is the Airbus A-320 series, tomorrow it could be a pressureization valve on the Boeing B-737-Classics.
Breiz From France, joined Mar 2005, 1808 posts, RR: 2 Reply 3, posted (7 years 6 months 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 5816 times:
Quoting Werdywerd (Thread starter): The order covers A318, A319, A320 and A321 models and would affect 650 planes worldwide if other aviation regulators ordered similar reviews, Dorr said.
Why 650 planes ??
There are more than 2500 A320 family ac plying out there.
474218 From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 6340 posts, RR: 10 Reply 4, posted (7 years 6 months 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 5793 times:
Quoting KC135TopBoom (Reply 1): This is just a routine AD issued by the FAA.
I see you never worked for a airframe manufacture, nothing about an AD is routine. Maybe thousands of manhours are expended on developing a inspection technique, developing an engineering a fix, publishing a service bulletin, sending a team out to prefect verify the procedure will work, coordinate all this with the FAA, vendors and the airlines. Then after everything is perfected and released and the operator's are doing the inspections/repairs it is the airframe manufactures responsibility to collect all the data and relay it to the FAA. Believe me I have worked on dozens of AD's and none were ever routine.
BoeingBus From United States of America, joined May 2004, 1588 posts, RR: 18 Reply 5, posted (7 years 6 months 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 5768 times:
Quoting Breiz (Reply 3): Why 650 planes ??
There are more than 2500 A320 family ac plying out there.
Because it only applies to US based airlines who own 320 series aircraft. Other countries usually follow FAA recomendations, so yes it may apply to all 2500.
EMBQA From United States of America, joined Oct 2003, 9286 posts, RR: 13 Reply 6, posted (7 years 6 months 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 5641 times:
As BoeingBus said, this AD only applies to the 650 US registered aircraft. As he also said, the JAA will very often follow the FAA and issue their own AD backing up the JAA registered aircraft.
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog"
N79969 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 7, posted (7 years 6 months 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 5602 times:
Quoting 474218 (Reply 4): I see you never worked for a airframe manufacture, nothing about an AD is routine. Maybe thousands of manhours are expended on developing a inspection technique, developing an engineering a fix, publishing a service bulletin, sending a team out to prefect verify the procedure will work, coordinate all this with the FAA, vendors and the airlines.
Point taken. However airworthiness directives are not at all out of the ordinary. There must be dozens of AD in effect with respect to the A320 as well B737 and every other large transport category airplane in existence.
Nijltje From Belgium, joined Aug 2005, 241 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (7 years 6 months 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 2106 times:
Please read the orginal message; so 650 worldwide.
"The order covers A318, A319, A320 and A321 models and would affect 650 planes worldwide if other aviation regulators ordered similar reviews, Dorr said."
Ikramerica From United States of America, joined May 2005, 21029 posts, RR: 60 Reply 9, posted (7 years 6 months 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 1982 times:
Quoting BoeingBus (Reply 5): Because it only applies to US based airlines who own 320 series aircraft
No, because it only applies to the planes that MAY have the certain possibly faulty mechanisms installed. Airbus seems to have narrowed it down to a certain combination of parts in a certain serial number range that likely doesn't apply to the other planes, and only MAY apply to the 650 worldwide.
Quoting Werdywerd (Thread starter): U.S. airlines must determine whether certain braking and steering units were installed in the planes' nose landing gear, the Federal Aviation Administration said in its order. Any landing gear with those units must undergo additional inspections and may need to be replaced, the agency said.
Pretty clear.
Of all the things to worry about... the Wookie has no pants.
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 487 posts, 
From France, joined Mar 2005, 1808 posts, 
From Belgium, joined Aug 2005, 241 posts, 
From Netherlands, joined Apr 2001, 10213 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
