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Old 25th May 2019, 07:16 PM
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Philip Argy Philip Argy is offline
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: North Strathfield
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Exclamation ATSB Final Report released - ATR72s at risk of catastrophic structural failure

The ATSB's final and very extensive report has now been released and can be downloaded from https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/577635...-032_final.pdf.

Whilst the risk of undetected structural damage in ATR72s has been reduced as a result of ATSB-recommended inspections in an earlier interim report, the ATSB remains of the view that ATR72s in current operation globally remain subject to the unacceptable risk of foreseeable inadvertent conflicting pitch inputs from PF and PNF triggering a pitch disconnect and subsequent momentary loads on the tailplane that it was not designed to withstand. This catastrophic condition can occur below VMO and therefore within the normal operating envelope for the aircraft.

The question is, how great is that risk and would you fly in that aircraft? ATR has been asked to carry out an evaluation to quantify the risk and meanwhile we are apparently all supposed to take the risk that nothing untoward will happen.

This is a more difficult decision that whether to fly on a Boeing 737 MAX because it will undergo re-certification with its new software whereas the ATR72s are currently operating with a newly-identified risk that has not been the subject of any certification re-evaluation.

The ATSB's French counterpart, incidentally, disagrees with the ATSB's assessment of the gravity of the situation and its own comments are attached at the back of the ATSB report.

This is a very thorough report by the ATSB and it has maintained its views despite apparent disagreement from ATR and the French regulator.

I hope ATR and European regulators take this report more seriously! Our own regulator, not to mention Virgin Australia Regional Airlines, will also have some soul-searching to do.

We certainly haven't heard the last of this methinks.
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