Dubai-based mega airline Emirates has been forced to ground five of its flagship Airbus A380 superjumbos after regulators warned that cracks had been found in the middle spars of the aircraft’s massive wings – essentially the internal backbone of the wings.
On Tuesday, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is responsible for international safety oversight of Airbus aircraft, issued an emergency airworthiness directive for 16 A380 superjumbos, with five of those aircraft, all belonging to Emirates, requiring immediate grounding so that urgent checks can be carried out.
The five aircraft in question are:
- A6-EOO (also known as MSN190)
- A6-EOR (also known as MSN202)
- A6-EOS (also known as MSN203)
- A6-EOY (also known as MSN209)
- A6-EUP (also known as MSN228)
MSN stands for Manufacturer’s Serial Number and, as the name suggests, is the number that Airbus assigns to the aircraft before it is assigned an airline registration. In cases where an aircraft moves from one airline to another and the registration number changes, the MSN remains the same,
EASA has issued several airworthiness notices in relation to this issue, including in December when the agency warned: “Occurrences were reported of finding cracks in wing middle spars of several A380 aeroplanes. This condition, if not detected and corrected, could reduce the structural integrity of the wing.”
The December notice required airlines to inspect affected aircraft that had been in long-term storage at any point for 12 months or more.
Airlines started to carry out inspection work on affected aircraft, and based on those results, Airbus and EASA issued an emergency airworthiness directive to address a “potential unsafe condition.”
The airworthiness directive splits the affected aircraft into two groups. Group 1 (which are the five Emirates A380s) must be grounded with immediate effect until the inspections are carried out. While Group 2 will require the inspections after a maximum of 25 flight cycles (25 takeoffs and landings).
The other affected A380s are:
- MSN30: A6-EDK – belonging to Emirates
- MSN42: A6-EDM – belonging to Emirates
- MSN55: VH-OQI – belonging to Qantas (currently undergoing routine maintenance)
- MSN56: A6-EDN – belonging to Emirates
- MSN105: A6-EDX – belonging to Emirates
- MSN142: A6-EET – belongong to Emirates
- MSN184: A6-EOK – belonging to Emirates
- MSN187: A6-EOM – belonging to Emirates
- MSN208: A6-EOX – belonging to Emirates
- MSN227: A6-EUO – belonging to Emirates
- MSN234: A6-EUS – belonging to Emirates
As you can see, all of the affected aircraft belong to Emirates apart from MSN 55, which is owned by Qantas. Thankfully, operations won’t be impacted as the aircraft is currently in Dresden, Germany, undergoing routine heavy maintenance.
Even before the conflict in the Middle East, Emirates wasn’t utilising its entire fleet of A380 superjumbos, with aircraft regularly parked up for long periods at Dubai World Central Airport. As a result, Emirates is unlikely to be too badly impacted by this situation.
