Qantas hero pilot questions Airbus explanation for A320 software flaw
The hero pilot of QF72's 2008 near-disaster has challenged Airbus over its explanation for a software glitch that grounded thousands of planes.
The captain of a Qantas flight that suffered two computer-generated pitch down events, injuring more than 100 passengers in 2008, has questioned Airbus’s explanation for a similar incident on an A320 that led to the grounding of 6000 aircraft for a software fix.
The revelation “solar radiation” caused a malfunction in the elevator and aileron computer on a JetBlue flight in the US on October 30, prompted a downgrade in a software update that was intended to protect against in-flight loss of control.
In an emergency airworthiness directive, the European Aviation Safety Agency made it clear aircraft affected were those that had undergone the software upgrade, from L103+ to L104.
“This condition if not corrected, could lead in the worst-case scenario to an uncommanded elevator movement that may result in exceeding the aircraft’s structural capability,” said the EASA directive.
Kevin Sullivan who captained flight QF72 on an A330 in October 2008, said there were many questions to be answered with respect to the A320 issue.
He said the uncommanded drop in altitude he experienced on flight QF72 was never fully explained with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau ruling out solar radiation after exhaustive tests.
“It took the ATSB three years to determine that cosmic or solar radiation was not the cause of the poor behaviour of the flight control system on the A330 but Airbus has concluded in one month that it can cause abnormal effects of the A320 aircraft specifically for aircraft recently updated to operating system L104,” said Captain Sullivan who retired from Qantas in 2016.
“I am sceptical. Is the cause of ‘solar radiation’ a smoke screen for a bigger issue? It is up to Airbus to answer that.”
A spokesman for Airbus said the decision to revert to a previous software version was due to the need for an “extremely prompt reaction” to a single event with potential unsafe consequences.
“Following analysis of the JetBlue in-flight event, and in liaison with airworthiness authorities, it was indeed determined that atmospheric radiation let to an SEU (single event upset),” said the spokesman.
“This was the first time we have seen such an occurrence on an A320 family aircraft.”
He said the L103+ software was known to be resilient to this kind of event.
“This will not have any implications for the ongoing operation of the (A320) aircraft,” the spokesman said.
“With reference to the A330, A350 and A380 our analysis does not show similar vulnerability within these families.”
He reiterated Airbus’s apology to the manufacturer’s airline customers and their passengers who were impacted by Saturday’s sudden grounding.
“At Airbus, nothing is more important than safety when people fly on our aircraft,” he added.
Captain Sullivan said there were obvious similarities between the JetBlue pitch down event, and the QF72 upset, except for the fact A330s were not grounded in the wake of the 2008 incident.
He said both events highlighted the complexity of computer-controlled fly-by-wire aircraft that are “easier to fly but harder to save”.
“When the automation malfunctions, pilots are left in a ‘no man’s land’ of abnormal operation that they may not have been trained to address,” said Captain Sullivan.
“Increased automation can increase the risks of unforeseen consequences; complex systems can fail in complex ways.”
A National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the JetBlue incident is continuing.
The majority of the 6000 A320s grounded in response to the incident are back in the air, after undergoing the software fix over the weekend.
An Airbus update issued late Monday said the manufacturer was working with airline customers to support the modification of less than 100 remaining aircraft to ensure they can be returned to service.
Worldwide more than 12,500 aircraft in the A320 family are in operation, making them the most common commercial passenger plane.
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Originally published as Qantas hero pilot questions Airbus explanation for A320 software flaw
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