Almost one month after an Airbus A400M tactical transport crashed in Spain, the UK Ministry of Defence has yet to reach a decision on whether the type can resume training operations with the Royal Air Force.
“We can confirm, as requested by Airbus, that we have undertaken and completed a series of thorough checks on the UK’s A400M aircraft,” the MoD says, referring to an alert operator transmission issued by the company on 19 May. This said that the electronic control units for each Europrop International TP400-D6 powerplant should undergo “one-time, specific checks”.
Initial analysis of the crashed aircraft’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders by the Spanish military’s CITAAM investigation body released on 2 June confirmed that a loss of power to three engines preceded the loss of aircraft MSN23 in Seville on 9 May. Four of the six-strong Airbus flight test crew were killed in the mishap.
“We are keeping the situation under review, and will return to flying once we understand sufficiently what happened and are confident that it is safe to do so,” the MoD says.
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The RAF has so far introduced two A400M Atlas transports, from a total order for 22 of the type.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
