EK A380 DXB-SYD diverting to PER

[Carsten Bauer]

Originally Posted by Nigel C

It offered a unique photo opportunity this morning with both EK A380's parked next to each other on Bays 4 and 5 at the freight.

Not as exciting as 3 x Ozjet's parked next to each other? nah....
Sorry, but Perff really is boring without stuff like this happening

[Philip Argy]

We could do with an update on this March 2009 status:
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...ty-issues.html

[Rhys Xanthis]

Originally Posted by Carsten Bauer

Not as exciting as 3 x Ozjet's parked next to each other? nah....
Sorry, but Perff really is boring without stuff like this happening

Ha I saw that at the airport last week, and I was excited.

You speak the truth, it's boring lol.

[damien b]

What about every other type in service as well? I know of at least two other flights delayed on Sunday due to technical issues and neither type was a A380. These are new aircraft and problems are to be expected as others have said on the board. Some of the problems would be minor in vehicles, and could wait until the next service, but they don't fall out of the sky when they stop working.

Very few aircraft fly fully serviceable and have allowable unservicebilities carried. As long as the MEL is met, the aircraft is good to go so to speak.

[Bernie P]

Originally Posted by damien b

Very few aircraft fly fully serviceable and have allowable unservicebilities carried. As long as the MEL is met, the aircraft is good to go so to speak.

I would like to see the source for that! I find that simply MADNESS! Minor stuff, ok we can all deal with it, but what the A380's, and primarily EK A380's, are going through is more than 'teething problems'...

Singapore initial and QF had a few and these have seemed to be fuel related and a couple of electrical, but those on EK have meant either major diversions, delays or cancellations on what SEEMS to be a near daily basis!

[damien b]

Well Bernie i am the source Aircraft fly with unserviceabilities all the time and depending on the route they are flying, what they can fly with unserviceable will vary. CASA and other agencies like the FAA have very strict guidelines on this. Its one reason why we have MEL's, otherwise you'd have delays and disruptions all over the place.

I have been talking with technicians who work on the A380 and most of the issues are not safety related. EK has had a bad run of late, but at the same time there may be underlying issues behind the airlines problems with regards to maintenance on the A380. Every airline using the A380 so far has a different IFE for example. If EK has a different avionics system interface for example this may well be a problem. I feel it more of a interface/options issue rather than the actual aircraft causing problems from what i have heard from the guys at the front. EK did option out the A380 and they well be paying for it so to speak in terms of maintainability.

I come from a 'digital aircraft' background (C-130J) and the first 2 years we had serviceability issues. Software interfaces, upgrades, components not talking to each other, computer freezes and other 'glitches' were all experianced. Its always great when you can just turn off aircraft power, reset the aircraft just like your home pc and turn it back on and watch all the faults dissapear. The aircraft has now matured and is on the frontline in Afghanistan and was also invloved in Iraq. The A380 is probably the first really high tech commercial aircraft and it will take time for all the issues to settle and for the maintenance guys to work out the bugs and get used to the aircraft.

SQ changed the schedule for the A380 into and out of Sydney to allow for a longer turn around and EK may need to rework their schedule and allow for a longer turn around whilst the aircraft matures.

[Andrew P]

. Its always great when you can just turn off aircraft power, reset the aircraft just like your home pc and turn it back on and watch all the faults dissapear.

do you put the plane into a controlled glide, while you do the reset?

Banjo

[damien b]

Only ever done on the ground Banjo, but i do recall one occasion that a inflight reset would have been a good idea, but the crew were not game enough.

[Adrian B]

Blue screen of death???