Britain, Germany, Turkey ground A400 military plane after Spain crash

Europe, News May 11, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

Britain, Germany and Turkey said today they were temporarily grounding their Airbus A400M military transport planes after one crashed near Seville airport in southern Spain during a test flight.

The move grounds five of the 12 new A400s that have already been delivered, with France saying it had no reason to ground its fleet of six aircraft.

At least four people were killed yesterday when an A400M crashed in the first fatal incident involving the new troop and vehicle transporter manufactured by European aerospace group Airbus.

“After the A400M crash near Seville it was decided yesterday to suspend until further notice the test flights of the German defence forces’ sole A400M,” a German armed forces press officer told AFP today.
The spokesman added that “since its delivery in December the machine has been in the air on a regular basis”.

“Now we are awaiting results from Airbus on why the A400M crashed near Seville. We are in constant contact with Airbus.”

Britain’s Ministry of Defence earlier said in a statement that “as a precaution” its two A400M aircraft “are temporarily paused.”

France meanwhile said it had “no facts compelling us to ground our A400M fleet.”

French air force spokesman Colonel Jean-Pascal Breton told AFP said that technically, the planes conformed to army requirements and while the army would not skip over security issues “we don’t have any reasons to ground the fleet at this stage.”

Turkey also announced it had suspended flights of its A400Ms.

“Turkey’s air force has temporarily suspended the flights of its two Airbus A400M after the fatal crash of a similar type of aircraft in southern Spain,” state-run Anatolia news agency reported today.

The planes have been temporarily grounded as part of “security measures,” said Anatolia.

The first of the A400Ms was delivered in 2013 to France which now has six. Subsequent planes were delivered to Turkey (2), Germany (1), Britain (2) and Malaysia (1).

A total of 174 A400M planes have been ordered, including 50 by France, 53 by Germany, 27 by Spain and 22 by Britain.

The wreckage of an Airbus A400M military transport plane is seen May 9 after crashing near Sevilla, Spain.
(Photo: AFP)

Black Boxes of Crashed A400M Plane Found, Aircraft Grounded

Spanish authorities on Sunday found the two cockpit recorders of the Airbus A400M military plane that crashed near Seville airport, killing four people, as Britain, Germany and Turkey grounded their models of the aircraft.

The recorders were found at the scene of Saturday’s crash and turned over to the judge who is leading the judicial investigation into the accident, the public works ministry said in a statement.

The military transport plane crashed in a field and burst into flames just north of Seville’s airport after hitting a power line during an apparent attempt at an emergency landing.

Four people on board died while another two, a mechanic and an engineer, were taken to hospital where they are listed in serious but stable condition.

Dozens of investigators, some wearing a protective white suit, scoured the crash scene on Sunday for clues into the cause of the accident.

Aircraft manufacturers equip all their planes with two black boxes — a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder.