Airbus Defence & Space says four of its flight-test personnel were killed and another two seriously injured when an A400M tactical transport crashed in Spain on 9 May.
"The aircraft with the serial number MSN23 was making the first production flight and had departed from Seville airport at 12:45 pm local time," the company says. The crash happened at around 13:00, when local meteorological data showed clear conditions and a temperature of 29˚C (84˚F).
All six personnel aboard the aircraft were Spanish nationals, says Airbus, which has dispatched a team of technical advisers to the accident site.
"MSN23 was foreseen to be the third aircraft to be delivered to the Turkish customer. The formal delivery was scheduled for June 2015," the company says.
The Turkish air force took delivery of its first of 10 on-order A400Ms in April 2014, with the second having been handed over last December.
Flightglobal's Ascend Fleets database records Airbus as having so far delivered 12 production A400Ms to five nations, with this total also including six to France, two to the UK and one each to Germany and Malaysia.
The accident represents the first loss involving the Europrop International TP400-D6 turboprop-engined "Atlas", which was first flown in December 2009.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
